Whispered Chaos
by phoenixreal
Summary: Sousuke Aizen left behind a private counseling practice in Kyoto to teach at Karakura University, where he had graduated a couple years before. He was looking forward to quiet, and less stressful situation so he could deal with his own personal problems he was going through. Then, he comes face to face with someone that strikes the deepest chord inside his soul. AizenXIchigo
1. Chaos in the Fall

**Whispered Chaos**

**Chapter One**

_Chaos in the Fall_

Maple leaves. That was the first thing that really made an impression on him as he approached the campus. There were so many maple trees here, and their leaves were falling in a raining cascade all around the place. He paused and stared at them. Such beauty in the seeming chaos of it all, he wondered internally. The brilliant shades of red, gold, yellow, and orange, all making no sense, but no matter what, leaving a beautiful pattern in the air and in his mind. Something about the leaves of the maple trees had always fascinated him. They began as delicate, fragile buddings, and then they grew into bright, green, robust leaves that lasted throughout the summer. Then, come fall, their colors changed into something beautiful, but at the same time so very fragile. They were lifted on the wind and swept up and away, and even though they were so fragile, if they were carefully handled and cared for, they would remain beautiful forever. Then, the tree would once again bloom once spring came around again, replacing the lost fragility of the leaves. He smiled softly, and brushed the slightly curling brown hair from his face as he entered his building.

The fall semester always meant a lot of work for the teachers at Las Noches University in Karakura Town. Sōsuke Aizen was a new teacher this year, teaching Introduction to Psychology and Abnormal Psychology. He was glad to have gotten a job like this as quickly as he did since he'd only ever taught part time up until now, and to be honest he was very young to be given a full time position. He was somewhat of a prodigy, having graduated with his degrees necessary to teach college at the young age of twenty five. He settled into his desk and waited for the first class to get into the room and seated. It was the intro class so it would be a full class, but as the school was relatively small, he only had seventeen students. Granted, his abnormal psychology class only had nine. He glanced up as students started filing into the room slowly, some quietly and some chatting as they went. He really didn't pay much attention as they entered the room and stood as soon as he counted seventeen students.

"Good morning! My name is Dr. Sōsuke Aizen, your teacher this year for the introduction to psychology. I'd like to welcome you to a fun and interesting semester," he said, pushing his black wire framed glasses up his nose as he leaned back against the desk. "Now, since I'm new to this school, and many of you are as well, we'll have a bit of introduction. So, we'll start here at the front row, and give your name, major, why you're in this class, and one fact about yourself."

Aizen pointed to the first student. "Um, Rukia Kuchiki, Language major, um, it's a requirement to graduate, and…um…Byakuya Kuchiki is my older brother."

A few murmurs followed her announcement. Byakuya Kuchiki was a well-known and very rich business man in the area. Everyone knew of him, of course. He ran the corporate law division in the largest company in the area, Seireitei Associates, which employed more people than anywhere else in the town. Aizen smiled and pointed to the next few students. He came back to the second row with the first student and gave him a nod.

"Oh, um, Uryū Ishida, Fashion Design major, requirement to graduate of course, and I have been sewing since I was six years old," he said with a smirk.

Aizen nodded, continuing back to the last student in the row. A pair of brown eyes looked up from the inside of the sweatshirt hood. Aizen had noticed him when he came in, head bowed and avoiding contact of any sort with his fellow students. At first, Aizen had thought he might simply be shy or unused to large classrooms. Aizen's brows knitted as he waited longer than the others for Ichigo. The boy swallowed nervously.

"I-Ichigo Utagawa," he said, almost too low to be heard. "I'm a psychology major, so I have to take the class, and um…" he stopped, thinking about what kind of fact he could share. "I have a big family," he muttered, putting his head back down.

Aizen frowned and continued on until everyone in the class had spoken. He glanced around, seeing most his students looking at him. Only Ichigo seemed to avoid looking up at all. He was staring at the notebook he was scribbling notes into from the textbook. Aizen cleared his throat, went through everything else, and had the students fill out note cards with their names, phone numbers, email and addresses so he would have the information at hand should he need it.

"Now, students, we'll pair up and continue with our first day activities for the last fifteen minutes of class," he said, smiling and pairing the students by row. He was left with one extra, so he had one group of three. "Alright, Rukia and Toshiro, Renji and Menoly, Uryū and Ichigo, Loly and Shinji, Hiyori and Emilou, Tesra and Ggio, Di Roy and Cirucci, Abirama, Ikkaku, and Shūhei, you'll be a group of three. Now, get together and figure out three new things about your partner."

Everyone paired off and he went back to planning the rest of the week's lesson plans.

Uryū sat down by his partner and blinked thoughtfully as he nodded at him as they sat together. Uryū smiled. "So, um, Ichigo, right?"

"Yeah, um, let's just do this, okay?" he said. "So three things about me, I'm adopted, I hate the nickname Strawberry or any variation of it, and I like to be alone."

Uryū blinked and stared at the notes he was taken. "Um, okay, ah, I'm estranged from my father, I want to be a fashion designer, and I am very picky about boyfriends."

Ichigo nodded, taking down the information. Uryū still didn't get a good look at him until he reached up to scratch the back of his head under his hood. Uryū frowned and wondered if it was possible. After all these years? What were the chances? That hair color and that name?

"So yeah, you said you were adopted, do you remember your name before then?" he asked, trying to sound casual about it.

Ichigo glared at him. "Not your business," he muttered as he glanced at the clock. "Class is over," he said, standing and Uryū winced at the odd smell that came off his clothes. It wasn't a bad smell, but he couldn't quite place it. Like smoke but not like cigarette smoke.

Uryū watched him leave thoughtfully, but didn't catch his teacher staring after him as well. Both knew something was strange with the young man, but neither could put a finger on what it was.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo stood outside the large house and could already tell the night was going to be bad. He could already hear the laughing and yelling from the inside as well as the thumping music. This type of thing never boded well for him. Especially if a certain guest was there. He looked out into the yard but didn't know any of the cars that were out there. He would know soon, though, he guessed. If he could get in the door and down to the basement with the others without being noticed, chances were he'd be fine, and so would the rest of them. Once they all go drunk and high, they tended to forget that Ichigo and the others existed.

He opened the door and realized immediately that it wasn't a lucky night. In fact, it was going to be one of the least lucky nights he had had in a very long time. He'd been lucky for a while, but his luck had certainly run out this time.

Mabashi slammed him against the wall as soon as he shut the door. Mabashi almost had hair the color of Ichigo's but it only served to make him more interested in Ichigo. Ichigo grunted, dropping his bag to the ground, both out of shock and pain. He could tell Mabashi was already high. He always got more violent when he was on coke.

"Hey, Strawberry," Mabashi said, slurring thickly as he spoke. He could smell the booze on his breath, but the smoke on his skin and hair made him gag. Opium smoke had such a distinct smell to it, and it was something that had started to make him nearly sick. Mabashi himself didn't smoke it, but the smell permeated most the rooms in the house.

"Mabashi," he said, looking at him and chewing his lip. "Long time no see," he said, knowing Ryo would have a fit if he was rude to one of his "guests".

"Heh, got locked up for a couple months, so you know what that means, I'm fucking horny as fuck, ya know?" he said, blinking blearily. Ichigo winced. "And I heard that yer pop got some nice, fresh ones in the last couple months. I'm surprised yer still here, ya turned eighteen last month," he breathed on him.

"Ah, I can't leave my family," Ichigo said, swallowing hard.

"See, I saw that prissy little girl earlier. She's a pretty little thing, what's her name, Momo?" he said, still crowding him against the wall. "And that little thing, Rin was it? He's a ripe one."

Ichigo reacted before he thought. "Don't touch them!" he shouted his back straightening and then he gasped, seeing Mabashi's eyes go wide. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't…" he started. Shit.

Mabashi moved so damn fast, even when he was high like this. His fist connected Ichigo's chin solidly, sending him to his knees.

"Did you just fucking yell at me?" he said, his voice less slurred now that he was angry.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he muttered, feeling the blood dripping from his mouth already.

Mabashi reached down and grabbed him by the back of his hair and yanked him up, dragging him through the entry into the first bedroom where a couple others were sitting around with opium pipes. Ugaki and Ryo were sitting in the large chairs on the side of the room as Ichigo was tossed into the floor.

"Ryo, this bitch is mouthy tonight," he said.

Ryo looked at him with bleary eyes. "So, teach him a lesson," he muttered, sucking the smoke in slowly. "He's been going off to college, thinking highly of himself, bring him down to the level he deserves to be at. I told Yoshi letting him go to college would be bad for the little shit," he said, exhaling smoke slowly.

Mabashi grabbed him by the hair again, pulling him up into Ryo's face as he sucked in a long breath from the pipe before puffing it out into Ichigo's face. Ichigo, like always, tried to hold his breathe until the cloud dissipated. At first they tried to make him smoke the pipes, but they found out that he wouldn't. Now they would blow it into his face, and he thought maybe they wouldn't… He grunted and sucked in all the smoke around him as Mabashi punched him squarely in the ribs. He coughed as the opium smoke filled his lungs and then his head started to float.

"There you go, that's better," Mabashi said, feeling him relax against his hold. "So much better when he don't fight as much," he muttered before slamming his elbow into Ichigo's face, knocking him backward.

Ichigo hit the ground with a thud; he didn't even trying to catch himself, after all there was little point. He tried to distance himself as Mabashi slammed his fists into his ribcage until something shot pain that he felt even through the drug haze. He nearly sobbed as he felt himself being lifted up again and thrown onto the single bed. He couldn't move because of the pain, but also his arms and legs felt like led as he stared at the ceiling. He felt his clothes being taken off but he didn't care much. The world was spinning and he couldn't stop it. He felt his hip pop painfully and thought he might have pulled it out of the socket again. Mabashi was perhaps the more violent of the guests when he was high like this, and he honestly would rather it be him than Momo or Rin. Another gout of smoke into his face, and the pain just faded away, which was good. He lost track of time and who was there, and it didn't matter, really, he couldn't feel a thing.

He came around sometime later and he was still somewhat out of it, but he could tell he wasn't upstairs on one of the good beds now. He heard panicked voices around him as his eyes fluttered open. He was looking at a very scared Hanataro and Rin. He saw Momo and Ririn, and behind them Nozomi and Noba. All had been watching carefully because of the way Ichigo had been breathing. Between the damage to his ribs and the drugs, his respiration was far from normal.

"Ichigo, are you awake?" Hanataro asked, putting a cloth on his head.

Ichigo smiled. "Hmm, fine," he said softly.

"You aren't fine," Ririn said from the next cot. "Mabashi again? I thought he was locked up."

"He got out yesterday," Nozomi said quietly, not looking up from her hands. "Drug charges didn't stick." The fifteen year old girl didn't speak much.

They had all been somewhat relieved for Ichigo when Mabashi had been picked up selling drugs to kids around the college. Unfortunately, after three months, just as the trail was about to start, the evidence vanished from the locker at the police station. No one really knew what happened, but without the evidence, or a witness that would talk, they ended up letting him go.

"Does this…happen much?" Rin said quietly. Rin had just been fostered a couple weeks before. "I thought they were good people, they said…"

"They buy out the staff at the orphanages. They use us for money, and well, for other things," Ririn answered. The fourteen year old had been adopted by the Utagawas the same year as Ichigo, Noba and the twins, Ho and Ban. Ho and Ban were gone; they'd left when they turned eighteen and no one knew where they'd been for the last couple years.

"Why don't you leave, dammit?" Ririn said to Ichigo, tears collecting in her eyes. She'd already asked him so many times. He was eighteen. They all knew that he was in a dangerous position.

"He was gonna come for Rin or Momo…I couldn't let him…" Ichigo said and reached over and put a hand on Rin's cheek. "He's too young," he said, smiling goofily still more than a little high. "I…I'm…not leaving you…someone hasta protect you from them," he said softly, wincing as pain sensation started to come back.

Rin started to cry immediately. Momo turned away. Of them, only Rin, Hanataro, and Momo had managed to go without being used to sate the perverted sexual appetites of the party guests. It didn't happen often, but there were some that took things far beyond smacking around one of them when they wandered too near their party areas. Mabashi was often one of the ones that enjoyed new fosters in the household, as he enjoyed breaking them into the party life. Of course, the ones that had been there for a while knew that Mabashi had a thing for Ichigo, and had been singling him out for five years already. Ichigo faded off the sleep again, not really noticing when Ririn had Noba and Hanataro help her put his hip back into place.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen so far was enjoying his classes. He taught a Tuesday/Thursday class so he didn't see his students every day. Thursday came and he tried to remember names as they came in. He did a double take when the Utagawa boy came in with an obvious limp. He was bundled into his hoodie again, pulled down over his face. Uryū came in afterward and noted the way the other boy was sitting. Aizen noticed the way that the Ishida boy looked at Ichigo, and he had to wonder if there wasn't something going on that he should know about.

Aizen went around and passed out worksheets for them to complete on the chapter they were supposed to read before this class. As he passed Ichigo's desk he stopped, and looked at him.

"Hey, Ichigo, right?" he said softly so the other students couldn't hear him.

"Um, yeah," he answered and looked up at him. When he did, Aizen frowned. His face was bruised and he had a split lip that had just started to heal.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

"Fine, just…bike accident," he muttered, shifting in obvious discomfort in his seat and looking down at the paper which he started to fill in.

Aizen nodded, catching a very sweet smoky smell from his clothes when he moved. He blinked, wondering where he'd smelled that before. He shook his head and moved on. A bike accident? He supposed that was believable. The class continued, and Ichigo didn't speak any further. He saw a lot of signs that made him suspicious.

So far, he had seen that the boy was reclusive and quiet. By itself, those things weren't warning signs or anything. He may have been shy and introverted, which would explain a great deal of the strange symptoms he seemed to show. However, what worried Aizen was that he was hapnophobic, anxious, and very jumpy when other people came close to him. While it could be the boy's personality, he feared for something else. He swallowed and then pulled the card from the file. He pulled up the family name on the computer to see what he could find.

Ryo Utagawa was apparently a child born into wealth. He used his wealth to take in and in some cases adopt older children that would otherwise be left in orphanages. He was known for making charitable donations to many organizations, and had even donated a large sum to the college. However, the more he dug, the more he found that things didn't add up. There were some rumor blogs saying that there were often parties involving sex, drugs, and alcohol happened at the large mansion outside of the city limits the Utagawas lived in. The closest neighbor was a four-plex that was situated on the next plot of land owned by a woman named Yoshino Sōma.

He looked up as his buzzer for the end of class went off and watched as everyone left. He was curious, even more now than before. However, what could he do? Unless there was something illegally wrong, it wasn't like he could interfere in the life of an eighteen year old student. He knew something was wrong. He could sense it and he wanted to help him. Something about him, something as fragile yet strong as the fall maple leaves.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Uryū stared at his phone for a long time before he dialed the number for Karakura General. He asked for his father and was connected quickly. Of course, he was connected quickly. He was asking for Dr. Ishida.

"Dr. Ryuken Ishida speaking," came his father's harsh voice.

"Father?" he said wondering if he'd hang up.

There was a long pause, then the voice came on that sounded somewhat bewildered. "Uryū?"

"Father, I am sorry to bother you at work but I no longer have your cell or home number since you changed it. I need to ask something," he said with a tightening in his chest. This had driven them apart, after all. To bring it up again was a dangerous thing. He honestly was waiting for him to hang up at any moment.

"What is it?" came the terse reply.

"What happened to Uncle Isshin's oldest child?" he asked quickly.

Ryuken didn't speak for a long moment. "Why would you ask a question like that?"

"Because I think he may be in my psychology class."

Another long pause occurred. "That's impossible. Masaki and Isshin's children were taken in by his cousin, Kaien Shiba and his wife after the incident happened. They should all three be there now."

"Father, there is a boy, my age, and he had obnoxiously orange hair and his name is Ichigo. I don't know how many other people have that crazy hair color and that name," he said, chewing the inside of his cheek and wondering if he would, yet again, be dismissed.

Ryuken started to dismiss it but stopped. "That…would be unusual." Another boy the exact same age with the exact same name and the exact same hair color? What were the chances?

"As I thought. His last name is Utagawa, isn't that the guy that donated a bunch of money to the hospital and the college a few years ago?" Uryū asked.

"Yes, but why would he be with someone like that?" Ryuken asked slowly. "He is a well-to-do man, and should be well taken care of if that's the case."

Uryū bit his lip again. "He's messed up."

"What?" Ryuken said. "What do you mean?"

"He's messed up. Something is wrong with him and he stinks like an opium den," Uryū said, having realized what the smell was when he smelled it again. More than once he'd smelled different drugs, mostly in the times he'd done costumes for some of the local clubs.

Again, there was a pause. "Um, son, perhaps we can meet for dinner and talk more," he said.

Uryū blinked and was speechless for a long moment. "Um, yeah, sure, meet you at the café on fourth street?"

He almost heard the smile in Ryuken's voice. "Yeah, sounds fine."

"See you then," he said, and waited for him to hang up. He stared at the phone for a long moment.

It happened almost ten years ago. His father, Ryuken, had a younger sister named Masaki. Masaki had married Isshin Kurosaki, and they had three children, a boy and then a pair of twin girls four years later. Ryuken had been incredibly close to his sister and then to Isshin and his nieces and nephews. Then, one night, Masaki was murdered in front of their oldest, Ichigo, who was severely injured in the attack. Isshin disappeared without a trace, and the Kurosaki kids were put into the foster system. Isshin's cousin, Kaien Shiba, and his wife were going to take them in since his wife couldn't have children of her own. Ryuken though had become completely out of hand over the whole situation and it drove a wedge between him and Uryū. Uryū had lost track of what happened, but he was so very angry at his father that he didn't care.

Uryū sat down on his bed with a thump. What could he do?


	2. Family Chaos

**Whispered Chaos**

**Chapter Two**

_Family Chaos_

"Father," Uryū said as he sat down at the table. The place had met at was somewhere that at one time had been very special to both of them. It was just a small out of the way diner that served the best ramen in town called Daikoku Ramen. It seemed low brow for the doctor and his son, but there were many memories associated with the place.

The last time they had been at this place together had been the last time they had actually seen each other. That had been the day Ryuken had crossed a line with his twelve year old son that severed their relationship. It had been the day that Ryuken had completely missed Uryū's play at school that he'd designed the costumes for. It had been so very important to the young man, but the last three years Ryuken had grown very distant after the murder of his sister and disappearance of his brother in law. He'd dove into his work and rarely spoke to Uryū. The play had been the last straw. He called his grandfather to come pick him up and asked to stay with him. His grandfather had hesitated, but Ryuken had told Sōken to take Uryū and go, he didn't want anything to do with family in any form anymore. From that day forward, he did not.

"Uryū," Ryuken said, still in his suit and tie from the hospital.

Uryū looked at the ramen bowl on the table Ryuken had ordered for him already. "You remembered my favorite, after all these years."

Ryuken sighed. "I'm sorry," he said suddenly, looking up. "I want to start with that. I was sorry the minute you left six years ago. I couldn't say anything and I couldn't do anything. There just was no way. My heart was pulled from my chest when Masaki died, and I lost everything she'd contributed to the world when Kaien was to take the children to Tokyo. I suppose in a way, I'd hoped that Isshin would have sent them to me, and that was a pain I couldn't erase. I understand, of course, why, Kaien and his wife could offer a mother and a father, and I could only offer a father for them."

Uryū was speechless. That, he did not expect. "I'm sorry too; I should have understood what you were going through. Aunt Masaki was very important to you and…and I guess I forgot how close you and Isshin were. You grew up with him after all, I can't imagine what it was like to lose both of them like that. I never thought about how much it would hurt that your sister's children wouldn't have come to stay with you."

Ryuken nodded. "Yeah, I think we both could have done better."

They sat and ate in silence, letting the memories of the place fill them. Uryū had more than once thrown ramen back and forth with his Uncle Isshin and his cousin Ichigo. He remembered the babies and how cute they had been. Ichigo had been seven when he fell out of the booth in the far west corner of the place and needed stitches in his chin. Uryū looked up.

"Father, Ichigo would have a scar, wouldn't he? On his chin?" he asked.

Ryuken nodded slowly. "Yeah, when you and he decided to try and climb the back of the booth and he fell out and busted his chin on the floor. It wouldn't be very noticeable, I did the stitches, after all, but it would be there, just about here," he said, leaning over and tracing a finger just over the right side of Uryū's chin.

Uryū nodded, suddenly realizing that this was the first time he'd felt a touch from his father in six years. "I can look. But father, what are the chances of there being another person like that?"

Ryuken shook his head. "Not very likely. However, you said he was an Utagawa?"

Uryū nodded. Ryuken reached into his briefcase and pulled out a file folder. "I looked up their medical records. Not strictly legal, but no one is going to find out and if they did, they won't say anything. Most he people at the hospital walk on eggshells around me anymore."

Uryū smirked. That was his father, alright. "I guess some things don't change."

Ryuken looked up and him and smirked. "I get things done faster than the other department heads," he said as he opened them.

"Anyway, the Utagawas take in foster kids and adopt some of them. Now, on the surface this seems like good deeds, but I got to wondering how they afforded so many kids and how they donated money to places like the hospital and the other charities. Well, something interesting came up. I did some snooping and both Ryo Utagawa and his wife Yoshi were officially disowned and cut off from their families. So I was curious how they got this money and how they could take in kids. Well, look at this," he said, handing a sheet to Uryū. It was a financial statement sheet sometimes required when there were state paid insurance like foster kids had. "The foster kids get income under their names. It's supposed to be used to take care of them. They have upwards of six to eight kids in house at a time, and when they adopt they get a stipend and a continued payment, plus complete insurance coverage for them. Now, what I find interesting, they never come into the hospital. I looked them up in the system, and the only doctor's visits the Utagawas adopted children and fosters have are the required checkups on a yearly basis, and even then, I think they're forged."

"Why do you think that?" Uryū said, looking over the collected papers. He paused. Ho and Ban Utagawa. That was the name of the boys that one of the other tenants at his four-plex took care of. Could it be them? How many sets of twins named Ho and Ban could there be? There were too many coincidences.

"Because their height, weight and vitals don't change much, like someone was guessing how much they had grown." Ryuken put away the papers after another few minutes.

"So what does it mean?" Uryū said. "What are they doing?"

Ryuken shook his head. "I have no idea, but nothing good, I'm guessing. Kids this age have accidents, broken bones, and there's no reason for them not to. Something is going on with them, and if this is your cousin, we have to do something, for Masaki. I can't let her son suffer."

Uryū nodded. "We have class Tuesday; I'll see what I can find out otherwise from Yoshino. She said something about the Utagawas the other day, technically they are our neighbors, but I can't think of what it was."

Yoshino was like a surrogate mother to Uryū. She was a confidant and had always been there for him. She was more than a land lady. She would help him, he knew that for sure.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Yoshino Sōma owned a nice four-plex. The grounds around it were nice as well, Koga, one of her tenants, paid part of his rent by doing the yard work and landscaping for her. They'd installed a small duck pond, a set of benches around the pond, and a large trellis where climbing flowers grew. They'd also planted several cherry trees a couple years before, and this year they should bloom and fruit. Koga did landscaping for a living, but because of the varied demand, he often had times he was short on rent. She also let him do most of the maintenance when needed in exchange for taking some off his rent. He needed the money for his two wards. She was sitting on the balcony of her apartment and watching below as Koga sat by the pond as his two charges played catch with each other.

Ho and Ban Utagawa were almost twenty years old, but neither one of them were capable of working, so Koga took care of them. Yoshino had her suspicions of what had happened to those two boys, but she had never confirmed it. She knew Koga from before her now ex-husband went to jail. Koga had been one of the few people that helped her when the bastard tried to pin a con on her. If it hadn't been for him, she might not have turned the tables on Jin Kariya (she had taken her name back after the divorce was final, of course). She waved down at Koga who waved back as he was reading a paperback.

She saw that Yasutora Sado, one of the college boys that lived in the apartment underneath hers, was crouched under one of the cherry trees playing with the local cats. There was a pack of them that all had clipped ears that they all took care of. The clipped ears meant they had been a part of the catch and release program to control the stray population, and were all neutered and spayed. Yoshino noticed that two of the regulars were missing. Her eyes went to the east, where the next house was just out of view. The next house belonged to the Utagawas, even if she never saw them. Her fourplex was on one side of a divide and their mansion on the other. A fence ran between the properties, and the road did not run through. However, sometimes the cats wandered over there and didn't return. Considering she often heard gunshots, she had a good idea what happened to them.

She sighed and looked down at the young man. He was what she would call a gentle giant, and he adored the cats and the other animals that came around. His roommate was Uryū Ishida. Uryū was a rather dour looking boy, but he was a fashion design major, and she tried to take care of him. She knew that he was on some quest to find his place in the world especially after his estrangement from his father, but she didn't think he knew that he already had found that place. She smiled as his car pulled into the parking area and he came out, waving at Chad, as Yasutora was nicknamed.

He walked up to where Chad was sitting and spoke with him for a moment before Uryū looked up and waved at her. There was a bit more between him and Chad, then Uryū came running toward the building, scaring poor Ho and Ban nearly into the pond. He stopped and apologized to the boys and walked slowly this time. She smiled to herself. Whatever he wanted to talk about must be important.

A few minutes later he came onto the balcony and flopped into a seat beside her. She smiled at him. "So, you're in an excited mood," she observed. She couldn't pin down his mood though.

"So, first of all, my dad and I spoke today," he said with a slight smile.

Yoshino arched a brow. Uryū had lived in her place for nearly five years, his grandfather living there with him until he passed the year before and Chad moved in to help with the rent. In that time, she thought sure the rift between the two would never be sealed.

"What brought this on?" she asked, leaning toward him, her dark brows knitting.

"I called him because I think…I think my cousin is in trouble. And I need to know something. What do you know about the Utagawas? I know they live over there, and that you talk about them now and then, but his last name is Utagawa," he said, looking up at her.

Yoshino paled a bit. "You're sure?" she said, pushing her long dark hair behind her ears.

"Yeah, and Ho and Ban were named on some paperwork father had about the Utagawas…" he said, looking up at her.

Yoshino nodded. "Yeah, they were adopted there," she said, glancing down at the pond where Koga was having to mitigate a fight between the twins over something, most likely one of them had one of the extreme mood swings they suffered now and then. "Something happened to those two there, but please don't talk to them about it. You might ask Koga, but don't ask them. They're enough for him to handle as it is."

Uryū nodded, looking down at the two. Sometimes they acted like ten year olds despite being twenty. He bit his lip. "Yeah, I'm gonna go down now, I'll come talk to you if I find out anything," he said, standing and kissing the top of Yoshino's head.

He headed down the stairs and saw that Luppi and Wonderweiss were sitting on their deck. Luppi was painting and Wonderweiss was…well, being Wonderweiss. He was utterly silent and engrossed in a DS game, not looking up when Uryū approached. The blonde haired boy didn't talk, and had a tendency to make people uncomfortable with that fact. Uryū waved at them and wandered onto their porch and glanced at Luppi's painting. It was, as usual, surreal and strange, with a lot of plant looking things. Luppi smiled at him.

"Hey Uryū, how was your first week at school?" he asked, pausing to clean his brushes.

"Good, you're taking abnormal psych with the new guy, that Aizen?" he said, smiling at the much shorter man.

Luppi nodded, dipping into his palate again. "Yeah, figured it might help understand my bipolar a bit better. Meds are working lately though, huh Wonderweiss?"

Wonderweiss nodded without looking up. Uryū smiled. The pair was unusual, but they were good neighbors. "Okay, I've got my own homework, so I'll talk to you later!" he said, heading into his own apartment to see Chad had come in while he was upstairs.

"Hey Chad," Uryū said, flopping onto the couch with a sigh.

"Are you well, Uryū?" Chad asked, coming to sit in the chair across from him.

"I don't know. I just don't know. If this guy is my cousin, what should I do? He might be in trouble, and I just…I can't put up with drama right now, you know," he said, taking off his silver framed glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Chad was silent a while. "If he is family, you should help him. I will help you."

Uryū smiled at Chad. "Thanks, Chad, I know I can count on you," he said, and got up to head to his room. Uryū didn't catch the strange look that crossed Chad's face as he walked away.

"You can always count on me," Chad muttered, turning and looking out the window. "I'm always going to be here for you."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen couldn't concentrate on the papers he was grading. His mind kept spiraling to the troubled boy in his psychology class. He rubbed his head and wondered how he could help him. The first step to doing anything would be to get the student to talk to him. He wasn't sure how to do that though. He had the sense that the boy was being abused in some fashion, because quite frankly, he didn't buy the bike accident idea.

He got up and walked around the small apartment he'd rented just a couple weeks ago. He finally settled into the sofa and turned the TV on when someone knocked at the door. He frowned and stood up, considering that only a couple people had his address since he'd moved to town. He opened the door to find the unlikeliest person. Byakuya Kuchiki stood in a pristine suit and tie, and his usual almost emotionless face.

"Kuya," Aizen said, surprised. "Come in," he said, letting the other man into his apartment.

"Sōsuke, I hope you've found things to your liking," he said, walking in with his hands tucked at the base of his back.

"Yes, of course, Kuya. I assume your younger sister informed you of being in my class," he said with a soft smile.

Byakuya nodded, looking around the small apartment. "She did. Of course, she doesn't know who you are."

Aizen went to the bar and poured a drink, scotch neat and clean, for Byakuya. Byakuya took it, and sat down on the sofa, glancing at the TV which was playing a random news show. "I would hope not, Kuya. I doubt you discuss your sex and romance life with your little sister," he said, sitting down beside him with his own drink.

Byakuya sipped his scotch. "Well, yes, since my grandfather is dead now, I don't have to keep my relationships a secret anymore. I've already inherited my shares of the Serietei, and they can't be taken away at this point, unlike when we were in school together."

Byakuya and Aizen had gone to undergraduate school together. Aizen had been a freshman in college when Byakuya had been a senior. The romance had been…heated, to say the least. Byakuya had been a very needy partner, and Aizen, though younger, had been the more dominate of the two of them. Byakuya, as a rule, preferred younger men, and the worst part was the fact that he had to keep the fact he preferred men completely secret from his grandfather, or he ran the risk of being written out of the will. Byakuya had even married a woman, a lovely girl named Hisana who had been Rukia's biological sister. When Hisana had passed from cancer, Byakuya had taken in Rukia as his own sister. Of course, Aizen and Byakuya's illicit relationship had come to an end when he married Hisana. Hisana, however, knew of her husband's preference for men, and knew that the marriage was solely to appease the Kuchiki family. She, however, had not minded, and when she became sick, she had Byakuya promise to care for her little sister, which he had.

"You know, I'm not interested in, you know, rekindling that…" Aizen began, looking up at him.

Byakuya shook his head. "I know, those days are past. I hurt you deeply when I left like I did. I should have handled things differently."

Aizen arched a brow at him. Differently? He thought. "Kuya, you disappeared and then sent me an email telling me in a very formal way that you were getting married and could no longer carry on with our clandestine affair. I believe you also said it was merely about sex, and you didn't love me and never had."

Byakuya sighed, looking away. "You know that isn't true."

"I know, it still hurt," Aizen said, smiling softly.

"I don't want you to think I'm seeking approval, but I know that you teach the class with my sister. Um, I also wanted to explain that someone else is in that class, someone that you may hear talk of me, especially with Rukia…" he said, sipping the drink slowly.

Aizen nodded. "You have a new boyfriend?" he said with a nod.

Byakuya nodded. "He's a few years older than Rukia, actually, she was his high school sweetheart, and I knew him very well. He spent more time at our house than his own, I think, and perhaps that's why in the last three years we started to become closer to each other. You know younger men always carry favor with me, and he is incredibly intelligent and kind, but he has the forceful nature that is pleasing to me. He, like you, does not allow me to push him around, and refuses to bow to my every will," he said, looking up and Aizen recognizes the subtle semi-smile that Byakuya often wore when speaking on matters of the heart.

"I think I understand," Aizen said. "And I'm happy for you, at least now you can be yourself in the world without fear, Kuya. It makes me happy that you have found happiness."

Byakuya nodded. "His name is Renji Abarai, the red headed boy with the tattoos," he said, looking up to see if judgment crossed Aizen's face.

Aizen, to his credit, didn't laugh. It was the ideal match for Byakuya. "Oh, I see. Not only do you out yourself as gay, you out yourself as favoring young, rebellious men."

Byakuya smiled. "Yes, indeed. But I must go for now," he said, standing slowly. "I'm meeting Renji for dinner, and he will be cross with me for being late," he said, putting the glass down.

Aizen walked Byakuya out to where his car was waiting at the curb. His driver, as always, was patient, a pale man with long dark hair that fell around his face. Aizen noted the long, manicured nails with black polish. Aizen smiled at Byakuya and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for coming by. Please, send me the happy announcement should it come," he said with a sly grin.

Byakuya smiled in return. "And you as well, if you should find someone."

Aizen shook his head. "I doubt that someone will just come falling from the sky for me, Kuya. There aren't many like you out there, headstrong and tough, and wanting someone to keep them in line."

Byakuya sat down into the back of the car and smiled at Aizen. "You never know, Suke. You might be surprised where you can find love."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was hoping the weekend was quiet. Of course it wouldn't be; he wasn't an idiot. He hoped he'd grabbed enough food for the weekend, because it was looking like a full party and none of them would be safe upstairs. There was a bathroom in the basement, and Ichigo kept the small mini-fridge packed with as much food as he could, and he had a loose board on the floor that he hid dry goods under. Sometimes the rats nibbled on them, but they couldn't worry about that. The noise from upstairs was so much that even in the basement, it was loud enough it made sleeping nearly impossible for the kids hiding down there.

It was Sunday afternoon when Rin pulled on his sleeve as he slept. He came immediately awake. "Ichi, we're outta food," he said quietly so the others couldn't hear. Ichigo winced. The party had started Thursday night, and for some reason they seemed intent on keeping it going through Sunday. Usually, Sunday was a lazy recovery day, but he guessed for some reason, people didn't work on Monday or something.

"Okay, buddy," he said, swinging his legs over the side of the cot. Momo was curled up asleep still where she'd been sleeping against his back. "I'll go find something for us," he said, smiling. He could go without for two days, and they had water in the bathroom, but he didn't think Rin and Hanataro could do that yet. They were still new to the way things worked.

"Ichi, you should stay down here," Ririn said as he got up. "Mabashi was up there, I heard him earlier."

Ichigo nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for him," he said quietly as he moved up the stairs.

He was barefoot, and he hoped that the absence of music and yelling meant that most of them were resting. If he could get to the kitchen and grab something, anything, and get back to the kids, he would be fine. He just had to avoid Mabashi and especially Yoshi. Yoshi got violent when she caught him getting food. He made it to the kitchen without incident, though, passing several passed out people, including Mabashi. He was relieved that that violent bastard was asleep. He wasn't so bad if he wasn't high, but if he had his usual dose of coke he was horrible. He was just opening the cabinet when he felt someone watching him. He turned around in time to get a full backhand to the face from his adopted mother.

"The fuck ya doing in here, boy?" she said, and she stunk of alcohol. It would have been different if she smoked opium like Ryo. She didn't. Coke was her drug of choice, like Mabashi, and that with alcohol made her even more violent than normal.

"The kids were out of food…I just…" Ichigo's explanation was cut off by another backhanded slap. He felt his lip split again. It had never really recovered yet from where Mabashi had elbowed him. He quickly reached up and put his hand over it so blood didn't drip on the kitchen floor again. That would lead to very bad things.

"Snot nosed brats, what do they fuckin' do to deserve food?" she asked, eyes narrowing, as she turned around, and Ichigo winced to see she had one of her pistols in the back of her pants. Shit, she was in one of those moods.

"I'm sorry, I'll just…go back, I won't…" he started again before she turned, pulling the gun and pressing it against his temple. She backed him against the counter, slamming him into it. Ichigo took a shaky breath. Perhaps if it was the first time he'd had a gun to his head, it might had done more to frighten him. It wasn't.

"Shut your fucking mouth," she whispered to him. "Do you want to end up like that other little fuck?" she said leaning in and whispering right into his ear. Ichigo swallowed, not answering. She smiled and licked his ear, sending a shiver down his back. He hated when she did this to him. "Remember that; remember what happened to him, I could do that to you or any of those brats at any time. No one came to find him, and no one would notice any of you if you disappeared."

"I know," he said, trying not to shake. It was impossible to predict her. He was pretty sure one of these days she'd kill him. It didn't matter, as long as he could take care of the others as long as possible. That was his place in the world, he'd decided.

"Good," she whispered, leaning back and putting the gun back in the back of her waistband. She grinned. "Oh, by the way, Mabashi, he's all yours again," she said, leaving through the other door.

Ichigo's eyes widened and he turned to see that Mabashi was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. He took a step back. "You were so much fun the other night; I wanted a second round, with ya Berry-boy. But this time, no drugs, I wanna hear you scream this time," he said, moving in on him. Ichigo could see the white powder residue still on his upper lip.

Ichigo's hands gripped the counter behind him and for a half a second he thought about the knives in the block. One move, one simple move, and he'd be dead, and Ichigo could run, and never come back. He swallowed as Mabashi grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face into the table. He couldn't though. He couldn't, because Yoshi would kill the others, and then what would he have lived for.

Mabashi wanted to hear him scream this time. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who heard it, and it would have broken Ichigo's heart to see the state his brothers and sisters were in, knowing that their needs had led to him being hurt again. Ichigo couldn't think of that, though. No matter what, he had to protect them. No matter what happened to him, if it saved any one of them a moment of pain, it made it worth it. Blackness was so soothing when it happened, at least in the dark he didn't have to think.


	3. Chaotic Truths

Aizen felt somewhat out of place as the sun set on the beach. He wasn't a very social person for things like this. However, being new at the school, he wanted to make friends with his fellow teachers. When Harribel invited him to come to a Sunday beach party since they were off on Monday, he accepted the invitation. Harribel headed the art department at the college. She was a rather quiet woman, with sun bleached blonde hair and a deep tan. She was by far one of the more intimidating people at the school, mostly because she rarely spoke much. The students had a lot of respect for the woman and she always seemed willing to help them.

"Sōsuke!" Harribel said, waving from down on the beach. He smiled and went down where she stood, wearing a white bikini top and a pair of white shorts. Against the deep tan of her skin, the white stood out brightly.

"I want to thank you for the invitation, I rarely do this sort of thing, but…" he began and stopped when one of his students came running up and tackled Harribel to the ground.

"Emi!" Harribel grunted as she stood up, sweeping sand off her legs and hips.

"Aw, come on, come play, babe," Apacci said with a grin, leaning over and kissing Harribel's cheek before she realized that she was being watched.

"Professor Aizen!" Apacci said with a grin. She, like Harribel, was dressed minimally, a short pair of shorts and a gray colored crop top. "Tier didn't say you'd come!"

Aizen felt somewhat odd. "Ah, yes, um, I'm new to this sort of thing," he said, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Harribel smiled and patted Apacci's shoulders. "I've yet to explain our family, Emi, go play ball with the other girls. Check in with Wonderweiss down on the beach. He wanted to get some photos of the sunset tonight."

Apacci nodded and slapped Harribel soundly on the ass before she left. Harribel sighed. "She's a handful; I understand she's in your psychology class?"

Aizen nodded. "Um, yes, I…"

"I understand your confusion, but to answer your question, yes, Apacci and I are partners, but I should let you know that it is not merely Apacci and I in our family unit. We have two others that share our lives with us," she said, looking out on the beach were Apacci was tossing a volleyball back and forth with another girl, this one with darker skin and long, curly dark hair. After a minute she left and went further down the beach where Aizen saw a figure sitting out further. "And the boy down on the beach is Wonderweiss. Our adopted son, if you will," she said with a smile.

"Ah," Aizen said, realizing. "A polyamorous group, then," he said, nodding. "A fascinating concept, one that is misunderstood often, I'd imagine," he said, thoughtfully pushing up his glasses as he spoke. "Of course, I've studied it; one of my research papers I published was in variations on family structures and the impact on those in them. Not as extensive as I would have liked, but it was a great deal of study. Tell me, how did you come by a son? I mean, if you don't mind me asking, please if I'm prying," Aizen stammered, embarrassed by the assumption.

Harribel smiled, shaking her head. "No, no, don't worry. It is fine. He's actually my cousin. When he was younger, he was diagnosed with autism, of a more profound type than they could handle. Financially, they were in trouble already, and to have a child that would likely never speak and would require home schooling or a special school to ensure he grew as much as possible… It was too much for them. His father, my brother, as well as our parents were supportive of my taking him on and between me and my consorts; we managed to make the best of the situation. I was still surfing professionally at the time, as it was a few years before I injured my knee, but I was also quite successful selling my paintings. My consorts, as I call my partners, were able to add to his knowledge and together we made an effective team to home school him. We were still in Australia on the Gold Coast at the time, and I believe we spent more time outside than inside with the boy."

Aizen smiled and looked down as the girls played ball back and forth. "I imagine a diverse upbringing benefited the boy."

"It did. Each of us were able to use our talents in different ways. Mila-Rose is a metalworker, often designing beautiful metal sculptures, while Apacci is a poet and very skilled in language and prose. My little Sung-Sun does jewelry and other small crafts and sells quite well. Between all four of us, we managed to cover all of the major subjects. Wonderweiss enjoys photography, and though he may not speak without his assistive devices, his work speaks for itself. It was through his photography that he entered the college on a full scholarship. He does some fascinating work with lenses that are beyond some of the photography teachers he's had. We are indeed a unique family," she said, smiling at Aizen.

Tier nodded, pleased at his easy acceptance. "Come, there are some others here you may recognize. I know that Soi Fon's boyfriend is also in your class with Emi," she said, heading down toward the large bonfire where people were scattered in various states of repose or activity. He saw the petite little physical education teacher sitting on the ground talking quite intimately with one of his older students, Ggio Vega. He didn't wish to disturb them.

Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and startled. "Sōsuke you came! Grimmy said you weren't a fun guy, and look at you!" came the voice of the incredibly bubbly and slightly annoying head of the art department Nelliel Tu Odersvank. He smiled and turned to her.

"I thought that getting to know everyone would be a good idea," Sōsuke said as "Grimmy", or Grimmjow Jagerjaquez, the boys' physical education teacher and Nel's longtime boyfriend said walking up with a beer in his hand.

"Well, glad to see you around here, then," Grimmjow said with a smile, and handed Sōsuke beer from his other hand and gave Nel one. "Nice to have some other men around. The lesbie group tends to take over now and then."

Nel smacked him on the back of the head. "Shush," she said. "Don't make such comments, Sōsuke doesn't know us that well yet, he'll think you're being mean." She looked at Aizen, chugging the beer and giving Grimmjow the empty bottle. "Don't worry, it's all in fun."

Aizen nodded. "It seems pretty relaxed around here, nice," he said, noting a few other people playing in the sand as the light faded, and a few others coming up from the parking lot.

"We like to keep it relaxed. Grimmjow, look more males for you," Harribel said, seeing a pair come down from the car lot. "Ggio's friends, Findorr and Abirama," she said as the blonde and black haired men came down.

"Hi, thanks for letting us come," Findorr, a tall, lean man with long blonde hair pulled back neatly, said with a soft smile as he approached. "Ggio said this was a much nicer place than the last party we went to…" he muttered, glancing at Abirama.

Abirama snorted, a rather large man with bright red tattoos across his broad chest. He had messy looking long black hair tied up on his head. "Tell me about it. Never going back to the Utagawa's parties again…" he muttered, getting Aizen's attention.

"Utagawa?" he said with a frown, looking up.

The new pair glanced at each other and to Harribel who gave a nod. Findorr nodded. "Um, yeah, they tend to be heavy on the drugs and light on the actual fun. Getting high off my rocker is not my idea of a good time. Oh, Harribel, is Szaz here?" he said, turning with a smile.

Harribel nodded. "Down at the bonfire with Sun Sung. He's been waiting to see you, honey."

Aizen could just barely see the faint blush that dusted the pale blonde's cheeks and she nodded and ran down. Aizen recognized the head of bright pink hair that turned when Findorr got close. He noted the slight distance they kept as they spoke, and how they started to lean in but backed off. He smiled.

"Just started dating?" he asked Harribel.

She smiled. "I suppose you do know your psychology, Professor Aizen. Yeah, they met here a couple parties ago. Took us forever to get Findorr to talk to him. You know Szaz, he tends to have strong personality."

Szayel Granz was the head of the wellness center on the campus. He was known for being very pushy with his patients when he had to be. Aizen liked him though, he seemed to know a lot about the medical field, and he knew he was a Nurse Practitioner instead of a doctor. However, he knew more than some doctor's Aizen had come across.

Abirama waved and headed down the beach to talk to a few girls down by the water. Aizen turned to Harribel with a frown. "They mentioned the Utagawas, I have an Utagawa boy in my class with Emilou."

Harribel's face fell a bit. "Yeah, according to Findorr they have some wild parties, but include a lot of drugs and drinking and sex. Of course, it is all rumor, you know, no one does anything about it. I'm sure if there were serious problems, the police would intercede, after all there are children in the household. Findorr may be exaggerating a bit, too."

Nel snorted, downing her third bottle of beer. "Hah! That may be but Yoshi Utagawa is fuckin' bitch, I'm telling you. I ran into her at the store one day and tried to be nice and she told me to fuck off!"

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "Nel, you turn into a sailor when you drink, come on, let's go sit by the bonfire, maybe start a round of ninety nine bottles of beer or something…" he said, ushering her toward the fire, leaving Harribel with Aizen again.

"Come on, down by the fire with us, we can't just ignore this beautiful night. Let us speak of good things and no more of distressing things," she said, leading him down to the beach.

After a few songs were sung, and night was deep, Aizen wandered toward the surf and looked out on the ocean. He felt someone walk up and saw Harribel watching the surf.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she said softly. "Clears the mind, and helps you think," she said. "I've been on the surf my whole life. I grew up in Australia, learned to surf there, and the waves here just aren't as good. I don't surf anymore, because of the injury I took a few years ago, so it is better to be here where the surf doesn't call me," she said with a soft sigh. "I remember the freedom on the waves though, what draws your mind, Sōsuke?"

Aizen smiled. "That Utagawa boy. I keep hearing things, and there's something wrong, very wrong with him."

Harribel nodded. "He's eighteen, you can't do much unless he asks for help if there is something wrong," she said softly. "That's the bad part about working in a college."

Aizen nodded and kept watching the surf. His mind kept returning to the look in his eyes. It was a look he'd seen before, and one he didn't want to see again. Yet, there it had been.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Monday morning dawned and there was simply no way Ichigo could get out of bed. He hurt from head to foot and he had no idea why things were _this_ bad. Sure, now and again, Mabashi had cornered him before, actually more than just him, and there were others, but that's why they stayed downstairs. They avoided them. Noba, who never spoke, had been the only one awake when he'd stumbled down the stairs at almost four am. Most of the time was a blur, but he remembered the kitchen, Yoshi, and Mabashi's incredible violence. He knew he'd broken at least one rib this time. Then there was something shoved into his mouth, some pill, but it was blissful for a while. Until it wore off, of course.

Noba had helped him to the bed and quietly wrapped his ribs since Ichigo's hands wouldn't stop shaking. When he was done, he kneeled in front of him and spoke softly.

"You know what has happened, my brother," Noba said in his soft, gentle voice.

Ichigo's brow scrunched because he knew, and he didn't want to admit it. Ho and Ban had turned eighteen. Less than six months afterward, they disappeared and none of them knew what happened. Before that, they were upstairs much more, to the point of Yoshino and Ryo dragging them up the stairs. They'd refused to talk to the younger ones about what happened, and kept to themselves. They steadily and steadily looked worse and worse, both physically and emotionally. The rest never spoke it, but they all knew what had happened. They were eighteen. They no longer received money from the state for their care in the Utagawa household. Ho and Ban were being made to earn their "keep" in other ways.

"Noba, I can't…I can't leave you guys," he whispered, chewing his lip as he cradled his ribs. "You remember what happened when Ho and Ban disappeared," he said, tears coming to his eyes. "Yoshi broke your jaw." One of the reasons Noba never spoke was because it hurt him physically. "She…she nearly killed Ririn. And she shot…shot…" Ichigo's throat worked. "She shot that kid, Cain was his name I think…and they buried him. What if I leave and she goes after you again? Or Rin and Hana and Momo?"

"You won't last like this," he said softly, wiping the crusted blood away from Ichigo's mouth. "They didn't last like this."

Ichigo shook his head. "I have to, for you guys. No one believes that anything happens here, and if I go to the police, nothing will change. They've bought off half of them. I can do this; I'll be okay."

Noba shook his head, putting a hand against Ichigo's cheek. "Brother, you will die. I know it."

Ichigo looked away. Noba had an uncanny ability to predict things. For him to say such a thing meant that he believed it completely. "B-but if they k-kill me, th-they won't take it out on you because it will be their fault, so…so I don't mind," he said shakily and tried to smile.

Noba started to speak again then just sat down beside Ichigo and hugged him as tightly as he dared. There wasn't a whole lot he could say to change Ichigo's mind. Noba knew no matter what he said, Ichigo would gladly give his life for the rest of them. There simply was nothing to be done about it. All he could do was hope someone could help, and hold Ichigo after they'd let him go. Noba rubbed his wrists where they'd been burned with rope and sighed. He'd sat with Ho and Ban at the beginning, before they'd retreated into their own worlds and wouldn't let the other kids close to them.

Thankfully, the door didn't open that day, and Ichigo slept through most of it. The others didn't speak of what happened, but like Noba they knew. Instead, they kept quiet and helped as they could. Noba watched him carefully, keeping a watchful eye on his breathing and his heart rate.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tuesday came again, and Aizen was hoping that the class had finished their weekend assignment. It was relatively simple, a survey of family members and their experience with psychology and mental health. He watched as everyone came in and sat down, glancing up when he realized that Ichigo had come in and sat down so quietly he hadn't even noticed him. He was bundled up in a hoodie again, the front of the hood pulled down over his face and slouched in his seat. Aizen frowned.

"Alright class, pass up the assignment," he said, and everyone passed them up.

He picked them up and told them to read the next chapter quietly while he went over them. It was mostly typical answers, this one had great experiences, this one a bad one, this one had a family that thought psychology was crap, and then he got to Ichigo's paper. It was blank aside from his name. He sighed.

"Ichigo, could you come up to the front please," he said, standing. He never spoke to students in close earshot to others. Ichigo looked up, standing up and coming up to the desk. Aizen beaconed him toward the front of the room.

Ichigo stood with his arms crossed and staring at the ground. "Ichigo, you didn't finish the assignment."

He nodded, still not looking up. "I couldn't, I'll just take an F on it. I'll do better," he said softly, turning and walking back to his seat.

Aizen watched, noting that when he sat down he flinched as though in pain. He moved, wrapping his arm around his ribs and scratched his head with the other, giving Aizen the first clear view of his face. He blinked. He looked worse than he had the week before. He saw that one of his other students, Uryū, kept glancing behind him at Ichigo, trying not to look like he was looking. Aizen flipped through the papers and looked at Uryū's answers.

"Mr. Ishida, might I have a word?" he said.

Uryū looked and came forward. "Yes, Professor?" he asked, looking a bit worried.

"You have an interest in Mr. Utagawa, might I ask why?" he said.

"Um, not really, I mean, I don't know…" he stammered. "I think he might be my cousin. And something's not right with him. And I want to know."

Aizen smiled. "Well, why don't you ask him?"

"I tried, he doesn't really talk," Uryū said, sighing.

Aizen nodded. "Just don't let it interfere with your studies, Mr. Ishida," he said. "And good work on the assignment, by the way."

Uryū smiled and headed to his seat. Aizen sighed, glancing at Ichigo. He obviously wasn't reaching for help. So he didn't have a lot of options. He wanted to act, though, but without proof, no one would listen, and if the boy himself denied whatever it was, nothing could be done. He sighed. Too many problems…and the semester just started.


	4. Chaotic Beginnings

Chapter Four

Chaotic Beginnings

Isshin sat in the bar and watched carefully. He'd gotten closer than he'd imagined possible this time. He was literally sitting in a bar where everything began. How was it that everything seemed to come full circle so neatly? Everything would end where it began…

The rain had been heavy that night. Masaki, sweet Masaki, had been walking home by the river with their oldest, Ichigo. The rain was no bother; both of them loved the rain. He'd been next door in the clinic when the phone rang in his pocket. Masaki's voice was choked on the other end and he could barely understand what she said.

"Run…Isshin…run…In…Inaba's comin'…" and then line went dead.

He knew what it meant. He knew all too well. How stupid could he have been? Why had he not taken precautions? He thought he'd never know. He thought before he found out, he'd be locked away and never seen again. No. His choice had been to protect his family. The moment his one-time best friend and college roommate Kagerōza Inaba had turned to him and said Isshin would continue to work outside the law or his family was dead, Isshin had gone to the police. It was simple, they said. He was to keep doing whatever Inaba said. Inaba, who was involved in hardcore human trafficking and drug running, used Isshin's services as a doctor when him or one of his associates, or even one of his "property" needed medical attention.

He never thought that there would be a corrupt officer among those working the case. He never thought Inaba would go through with his threat. Masaki, though, she feared him. She wanted to leave. She wanted to take their kids and run. Isshin had convinced her they were safe. He'd been wrong. He'd run next door and grabbed the twins and made it to his cousin's house in Rukongai near Tokyo, Kaien Shiba. He and his wife were unable to have children of their own. He told them to adopt the girls and Ichigo as soon as possible so their names would change to Shiba and Inaba wouldn't be able to find them. Then he took off and disappeared after leaving a suicide note saying he was guilty of putting his wife in danger and going to jump from the cliffs. He knew they would never look for a body from there. He had to trust Kaien to battle the courts for his rights to his nephew and nieces.

He lost Inaba in the next week. It began a nine year personal mission to find the man that murdered his wife. He'd seen the news, and he knew Ichigo was alive, but so did Inaba. However, as a victim in a crime, Isshin knew he'd stay in the system for at least a week before Kaien would get him out. He chased the bastard, always one step behind him. All of Europe and all of Asia, as the bastard set up and ran his illegal enterprises. He never managed to get to him, though. He slunk through the darkest parts of the world, making friends out of Inaba's enemies, and chasing him through the world. Imagine the surprise when he found himself in a bar in Karakura where the two toned haired bastard sat at a table with another man with dark hair. He heard them talking quite clearly from the bar.

"So, Ryo, how goes the household?" Inaba said with a smile, drinking a beer slowly.

The other man smirked, dark eyes dancing. "Oh, my darling wife has quite the brood these days. Got one that just turned eighteen if you're interested. Little bastard thinks he's taking care of the younger ones by staying. Makes a halfway decent whore when you tell him that you're going to drag the younger ones upstairs and fuck them if he doesn't cooperate."

Inaba smirked. "Quite nice, those twins ran off when they turned eighteen, didn't they?"

Ryo smirked. "Yes, but they didn't run far. Soft hearted twit of a neighbor took them in. Poor little things had their minds break, though. Worthless rats, both of them."

Inaba giggled. "Oh my yes, yes, lucrative business is it?"

Ryo shrugged, drinking his scotch. "I suppose. The brats bring in good monthly checks, and they're good for entertainment value during the parties, you know. Such fun to get high and watch the fucking coke addicts fuck them into the ground. The smoke makes me lethargic, couldn't get a cock up if I wanted to when I'm smoking. Yoshi and her kind though, speed heads and the meth heads; they got the stamina for sex when they're going. Yoshi has a bad habit of beating the shit out of them, though. I'd have to care to stop them, though," he said, smirking.

"Well, I shall come by tonight. Can I be assured of some entertainment?" Inaba said with a smirk.

"Of course, of course, though he has school tomorrow morning, it is mid-week after all, so try not to be too obvious if you leave marks. Mabashi's out of jail though, and he's taken to coming to visit him every night. Stupid fucking bastard, I think he's in love with the kid, the way he fawns over him and acts like a schoolgirl when he gets his hands on him. So be careful around him, I'd suggest waiting to get your hands on him until after you're out of Mabashi's eyeshot. He's fine, but he's decked more than one person that tried to lay hands on the kid when he was around," Ryo said, sipping the drink again.

Inaba snorted. "Why would you put up with that?"

"He pays, well, and not only for that piece of ass but also for the coke and heroin I sell him. I must thank you that is some good quality shit you've been sending my way lately. I've been cutting it though, stupid fucking addicts don't notice a difference, though," he said standing and pulling on his jacket. "Come, now, if you want to try out my household goods, you'll have to get there before Mabashi lays claim to the brat for the night."

Isshin watched them leave and felt his stomach turn. He looked up to the bartender with a smile. "So, any parties of the…fun variety in this podunk town?" he said gruffly.

The bartender smirked. "What kind of fun, mister?"

"Oh, I don't know, something to put my mind off the real world," he said, winking at him. He thought he recognized the guy from nine years ago, but Isshin was unrecognizable. His face was scarred, and covered with rough stubble. He'd let his hair grow long and let it hang loose around his face. He was a different man than nine years ago.

The bartender smirked and slid a card to him. Isshin laid an extra fifty on the counter and left. He knew where to go, and found himself outside a large mansion and heaved a sigh, knocking on the door. The door opened and a girl with short hair and almost nude except a short skirt answered the door, joint in hand.

"I heard to come here for some stress relief," he said.

The girl snorted and turned, letting him in. She had one hell of a pair of hips on her, he thought. "Yo, Ryo, got a newbie," she called.

"Haineko, go find yourself a corner and pass the fuck out," someone else yelled. "That shit you took is going to kick in soon." The girl flipped him off and then disappeared upstairs.

The man from the bar came out and smiled at Isshin. "You're new in town," he said and Isshin recognized the reek of opium smoke. He smirked. "Yeah, been needed a place to trip out on some shit and not have to worry about fucking bums stealing my shoes," he said, hands stuffed deeply in his pockets.

Ryo nodded and led him into a large living room where he saw Inaba sprawled with a crack pipe at his lips. Isshin sat down at the chair sitting next to the sofa he was on. "Poison?"

Isshin thought quickly. What could he appear to take but not? He smiled at him. "Got any Lucy?"

"Oh, one of those, got any money?" Ryo asked, arching a brow.

Isshin handed him over a few rumpled bills. He had bills that were in better shape, but he was supposed to be a junky here. Ryo took it and disappeared. He looked up where a younger man with reddish orange hair came in and flopped into the seat across from Inaba. "Yoshi, where's my boy?"

A woman with long dark hair came in with a cigarette and a bottle of vodka in hand. "Fuck if I know, Mabashi, little slut's still downstairs," she said, sipping from the bottle. "But don't get any ideas, you'll be sloppy seconds tonight, fucker," she said slinking down beside Inaba. "Inaba-sama has first rounds with the strawberry baby."

"What?" Mabashi said, eyes turning on Inaba. "He's mine, you said…"

"I said that he was yours as long as you had the money and he wasn't taken by someone more important," Ryo said, coming in and handing Isshin a packet of pills before he turned back. Isshin mimed taking them, sliding them under his tongue and then blowing his nose, spitting them into the tissue before he tossed it in the trash. "And Inaba here is our drug supplier," he said, glaring at the younger man.

Mabashi snorted. "Fine, you watch yourself, supplier or no, he better be no worse for the wear when you're done with him."

Ryo rolled his eyes. "If you care that much, Mabashi, whisk the fucking little whore away and make him your boy-wife," he said, smirking.

"Fuck you, Ryo, I don't care. I just like what I fucking like," he responded.

"Go get him, my love," Ryo said, looking at Yoshi. "He's scared of you, he won't argue."

Yoshi sighed. "Fine," she muttered, disappearing.

Isshin would stay as long as Inaba did. When the time was right, he planned to kill him. For nine years he'd dreamed of getting his revenge for murdering Masaki and forcing him to leave his kids. He would… Isshin's thoughts ground to a halt as Yoshi threw a young man into the middle of the room. He tumbled to the floor with a whine. No, Isshin thought, his heart rate accelerating.

"Stop being such a little bitch, meet Inaba, Inaba, here's our sweet ripe little strawberry for your pleasure. Ichigo, if you so much as say a word, I will fucking beat you and your little bunch downstairs until you can't stand," Yoshi said, pulling him to stand and speaking into his ear.

Ichigo nodded. He glanced toward where Isshin was sitting and Isshin's world came tumbling down upon him like a house of cards. Those eyes, the wild orange hair that no brush could tame, and that scowl that creased his brow for a second before he was tossed into Inaba. Inaba laughed. "Oh, my, what a cutie," he said, turning Ichigo's face toward him. "Come now, we'll have some fun."

Ichigo's face paled dramatically and the fear that crossed his face was almost tangible as Inaba stood, grabbing him by the bicep and dragging him to the stairs. No, Isshin thought. It couldn't be. His Ichigo was with Kaien. He couldn't be here. He felt his mouth go dry as he glanced to see the one named Mabashi glaring at the stairs. Ryo had gotten up leaving the two of them the only ones in the room.

"You don't like to share," Isshin slurred, pasting a goofy smile on his face.

Mabashi looked back at him and shook his head. "Not really. I get kinda possessive. Fuck, man, I'm the one that took his fucking virginity when he was fucking thirteen years old. I guess I see that as mine," he muttered, running a hand over his head. "Best fucking fuck I've ever had in my life," he said, eyes narrowing. "And maybe more, I don't know," and Isshin saw a shadow of something else across his face. "Sometimes I feel bad, you know, when I'm done with him. He always fucking cries. I just…once I want him not to cry." He stood up and walked out of the room and Isshin felt like there was a hole at his feet that wanted to swallow him up.

It couldn't be him. It couldn't. Ichigo was safe. Ichigo was with Kaien and Karin and Yuzu. That wasn't his Ichigo.

Isshin Kurosaki knew better. He knew his son, nine years later, but it was still his son. Those eyes were unmistakable, and that hair. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't thrown away the LSD. He certainly could have used something at that moment.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Thursday morning saw Aizen sitting in the teachers' room with a few of the other teachers. Ulquiorra Cifer, the statistics and math teacher, sat across from him reading the newspaper. He heard Nel and Grimmjow arguing on the other side of the room over the coffee. He swallowed and looked across at the Ulquiorra.

"Cifer, tell me, you have the Utagawa boy in your class, right?" he asked, swirling his coffee in the Styrofoam cup.

Ulquiorra looked up. "Yes, I do, quiet kid, troubled. I've offered to let him meditate with me, but he has refused," he said quietly.

Ulquiorra was one of those people that fascinated Aizen. He'd done a bit of study in his day about the psychology of religions, and the man was a prime example of what changes it could bring. He'd been exploited as a child by his father for his math knowledge. He'd run away to a Zen Buddhist temple, and converted and become a monk for a while. He was perhaps one of the youngest professors, but he was possessed of an incredible knowledge. He also used meditation a lot, and had gotten several problem students through tough times just by using that alone.

"Yeah, troubled, alright," he muttered. The semester had only been going a few weeks, and already he could not get his mind off the boy. Every week he seemed to have some new injury, and his home assignments were always rushed as though he did them before class. He wanted to say something but he was afraid of the results.

He stood and headed to class, and noticed that the boy was even more withdrawn than he had been. He was also bundled in a larger hoodie than he normally wore. Aizen let the class go on but summoned him right before he released the others. He locked the door and returned to sit down at his desk to stare at the young man.

"Ichigo, something is wrong," Aizen said softly. "Please, tell me what is going on with you," he said.

Ichigo looked at the professor from hooded eyes, swallowing convulsively. He couldn't say anything. He shook his head. "N-nothing, sir, I just am clumsy."

Aizen sighed, leaning back and crossing his hands over his chest. "Take off your hoodie, Ichigo."

Ichigo looked up at him and Aizen caught sight of the bruising around his mouth. "I don't want to."

"Why not?" Aizen asked quietly.

Ichigo's hands were shaking a bit, he noted. "I just don't, okay?"

Aizen was about to bluff his way into this, and he hoped the kid was too rattled to notice. "Ichigo, if I think you're having problems that might impact your studies, I'll go to your home and have a discussion with your parents."

Ichigo's eyes went wider. "No!" he exclaimed, blinking owlishly at his professor. "No, no, please, don't."

"Then take off your hoodie," Aizen said nodding.

Ichigo swallowed again and reached up to unzip it slowly. Again, his hands were shaking. A moment later he stood in a white t-shirt that was at least two sizes too small and his jeans that were far too big and only held up by the raggedy belt he wore down to the last hole. Aizen stood up and moved around the desk.

"Ichigo, who is doing this?" he said quietly, not touching him but looking at him.

His arms were covered in bruises of various shades of healing, mostly from what looked like someone grabbing him by the arm. Around his wrists, there were deep red gouges and what looked like rope burns. His neck was covered with deep, red marks that were not just "love bites", they were violent and harsh looking. He could see finger shaped bruising on his shoulders peeking out from under his shirt. He glanced down and where the too tight shirt rode up on his back there were more dark purple bruises.

"N-no one. I'm fine. Just…just nothing to worry about," he said, crossing his arms and shifting uncomfortably. "I'm clumsy."

"Ichigo, you don't get finger print bruises from being clumsy," Aizen said, sitting on his desk in front of him.

"I…I…" Ichigo started and didn't know what to say.

"If someone is hurting you, making you do things that you don't want to do, I can help you, you know?" he said gently.

Ichigo looked up and glare at him. "I don't do anything I don't want to do," he said with such a ferocity that Aizen wondered if this had been consensual. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd had a student into masochism.

Aizen reached out, though to put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched back involuntarily and shook his head. "I gotta go," he muttered, grabbing his hoodie and his bag and disappearing out the door.

Aizen watched him go, more concerned now than ever before. Sure, such marks could come from consensual acts. However, he had all the reactions of someone who was suffering from abuse. Those who were involved in consensual situations did not flinch and wince like that. It just didn't happen. He sat down and thought for a long time.


	5. Chaos in Reality

Chapter Five

Chaos in Reality

Ichigo's first thought when the weird man grabbed him was that he should run far away from this man. He had no idea why, he just had an instant of absolute terror of this man he'd never seen before. He'd never seen him before. He hadn't…or had he? Ichigo froze inside the room and then glanced at him, wide eyed. Why was he so frightened? He looked up as the man, Inaba was his name, turned and stared at him.

"Are you an idiot or something? Or do you desire me to slam you against the wall?" he said, a look on his face that was nowhere near kind.

Ichigo swallowed and shook his head. It wasn't the first time he'd had someone else besides Mabashi, but it was the first time he wasn't high as a kite when it happened. He was regretting not having been in the opium room before this. He moved over beside the bed in the large room and looked at him.

Inaba smirked. "You know, I murdered a fucking brat named Ichigo once," he said calmly, circling Ichigo like some sort of prey. Ichigo's back straightened. "Yeah, long time ago, you kind of look like him. But that's not possible, since I killed him and his whore mother." Ichigo fought the tears welling in his eyes. He wasn't going to think of it. He wasn't…but then, it crashed into him. He knew this man. He knew him very well.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Momma, I love the rain!" the boy, not much older than nine, said with a grin to his mother.

His mother, a woman with beautiful, long hair smiled at him. "I know, my love, I know," she answered, her eyes twinkling with the dim light. "But do be careful, sweet Ichigo, don't get your pants too wet…"

"Good evening, Masaki Kurosaki," came a voice that neither of them expected.

Masaki looked up to see her husband's friend, Inaba, and she froze. If he was here, it meant he knew what Isshin was doing. He knew that Isshin had turned on him. "Inaba, what brings you out in this dire night?" she asked, grabbing Ichigo's hand and pulling him toward her.

Inaba's mouth turned into a mockery of a smile. "Whatever do you mean? It is quite a beautiful night," he said, looking up as the rain fell onto his face. "A beautiful night, for your death."

Ichigo felt his mother's hand tense and he looked at the strange man he'd only seen a couple times. Before either he or his mother could react, a silver flash in the rain sent him to the ground, clutching an exploding pain inside his belly. He couldn't scream, and the world around him seemed to dim. He heard his mother scream and there was another ear shattering crack and Ichigo was warm again, so warm. He rolled his face up from the mud and saw the man grinning at them. The world turned black and swam away for a very long time.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo came out of the thought when he felt a sharp pain to his cheek and realized that the larger man had slapped him. He blinked, putting a hand against his face.

"I said, how long have you been here, or are you a complete idiot?" he snarled very near to Ichigo's face. "What was your last name before Ryo took you?"

Ichigo didn't think, he just responded. "I don't know, I was too small to remember my name," he said softly. "Ryo…Ryo said my name was Ichigo b-because my hair was red like a str-strawberry."

Inaba stepped back. "So you were too young to remember and your hair was redder when you were younger?" he said, eyes narrowing at Ichigo, who nodded slowly. It wasn't entirely a lie. His hair was darker when it was wet.

Inaba nodded and grabbed Ichigo by the collar. "Good, I'd hate to have to kill you when I was done with you," he whispered before he threw him down.

Several hours later, Inaba made his way down through the household and saw there were more people sitting around drugged or high. He saw the girl with short hair, Haineko he thought her name was, on her hands and knees behind the sofa being roughly fucked by someone with a bald head, but to be honest, her eyes were so drug clouded that Inaba had to wonder if she even noticed the fact. Ryo had asked him if he wanted to fuck her or one of the boys, and he took the boy, mostly because he enjoyed the pure dominance over another male.

He paused beside Ryo who was reclined in a chair and staring at the ceiling. "Quite nice, old friend. Apologies for the injury, I was a bit overzealous."

Ryo waved at him and Inaba left. As soon as Inaba was gone, Mabashi was on his feet and up the stairs. Injury? He saw the door was cracked and he heard Ichigo still inside, and the telltale sound of sniffling and the occasional whimper of pain. It was something he was familiar with, however it was generally him that left the brat in pain. He shoved the door open and saw Ichigo sitting on the bed, curled into the corner against the walls, and holding his left arm over his chest. He hadn't put clothes back on yet.

"Berry?" Mabashi said, moving into the room. Ichigo's head popped up and he stared at Mabashi with a tear stained face. His cheek was already puffy and red, and his lip was split. "Berry, what…" he said, rushing forward and grabbing his arm off his chest. Ichigo responded with a loud yelp of pain.

Mabashi wasn't an idiot; he knew a broken arm when he saw one. "What happened?" he said with teeth gritted together.

"He…he put it on…my back, just…just…pushed too much…" he said, staring at the arm that Mabashi held, now with a far more gentle touch.

Mabashi nodded, knowing it would do no good to mention it. Instead, he ripped the sheet and grabbed one of the loose boards on the floor. He quickly splinted it and wrapped it enough that it would at least be able to heal enough, if they left him alone for a while. It didn't take long but soon he saw the exhaustion tugging on the younger boy's eyes. Mabashi stood and closed the door, locking it, knowing that everyone downstairs was too drunk or high to even care, and slid into the bed beside Ichigo. "Here, I'll stay here and make sure they leave you be for tonight," he said, tugging his body out of the tight knot he'd rolled himself into.

Ichigo was too tired to argue, he lay down around Mabashi's body. Mabashi, without thinking began stroking his hair as he fell asleep. Before long, he looked down on the sleeping form and sighed.

"Why do things have to be so fucked up, Berry-baby?" he whispered to the empty and quiet room. "I want you to stop crying," he said, reaching to wipe the wetness from his eyes. He never complained, only his tears spoke of the pain he endured. "I hoped you'd run away like Ho and Ban did, you know that? I was gonna find you, and pick you up, and was gonna run off somewhere like the Bahamas or Spain with you. But you're too fucking stubborn, and you wanna protect your brothers and sisters so bad that you can't fucking be selfish, even for one day," he said, stroking Ichigo's hair gently again. "What am I gonna do? The fucking drugs make me so goddamned horrible, Ichigo. I stopped them; they don't know it yet, for you. So I'd stop hurting you. I just…I just want to be with you and I don't want you to cry…" he said softly.

He wasn't lying. After the incident in the kitchen when he broke Ichigo's ribs again, he'd sworn off the drugs. Yoshi and Ryo didn't realize, hell half the time they were too drugged up to see anything. He didn't want to hurt Ichigo anymore. He didn't want him to cry anymore.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

When Ichigo missed three days of school, Aizen got a bit worried and decided to try and find out what was going on. He called the number on the card Ichigo had filled out, but it was disconnected. He thought about going to his house, but was afraid that it might cause more trouble if he wasn't careful. Instead he decided to go talk to his other student, Uryū Ishida. Through the various gossip channels, he found out that Uryū seemed to have more than a passing interest in Ichigo, and he wanted to know why. He'd called and asked if he could meet, and Uryū had said to come to his apartment that evening.

It was a nice little fourplex, he thought as he approached, nearly tripping over a pair of cats as he walked up the sidewalk. He approached and knocked on their apartment, apartment A. Uryū opened the door and smiled.

"Come in Professor Aizen," he said, motioning him into the place.

Aizen smiled and saw another young man, a much larger man with darker skin, sitting in the recliner reading a magazine on cute animals. He blinked. Oh well there were stranger things to be interested in. "Please, I'm not your teacher here, Sōsuke," he said.

Uryū nodded and sat down opposite of him and nodded toward Chad. "Sōsuke, this is Chad, my roommate," he said with a smile. Chad looked up and nodded to him.

Aizen smiled. "Roommate," he muttered, glancing between them.

Uryū frowned and glanced at Chad before shaking his head. "Anyway, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Ah yes, I notice you have an interest in Ichigo. I wanted to ask why, outside the academic setting," he said with a smile.

Uryū nodded. "Um, well, my father is still trying to get at the files, but I think he's my cousin, the son of my father's sister. She was murdered when I was young, and her son would be the same age as Ichigo. There was a debate about whether her son lived or died. We are pretty sure that he was adopted by the Utagawa's despite the fact that his father's cousin, Kaien Shiba was supposed to adopt him and his twin sisters. Shiba has the two girls. We are unsure how Ichigo could have ended up with the Utagawas. There are conflicting medical records. He is listed as deceased on one yet listed as in ICU on another."

Aizen nodded. "And you are sure this is your cousin for more reason than that?"

"He looks like him, the hair is rather unique," Uryū said.

There was a knock at the door and Uryū got up and let Yoshino into the room. "Oh, Uryū, you have a guest," she said, smiling at Aizen. Aizen stood and offered his hand.

"Yoshino, this is on one of my professors, Sōsuke Aizen, he's come to ask about the Utagawas," he said sitting down on the sofa again as Yoshino sat on the arm between him and Aizen.

"Ah, yes, the Utagawas…" she said, looking distant. "They live on the next piece of land. We're separated by the fence line, though. Doesn't mean that we don't notice things. Actually, Koga's wards, Ho and Ban are Utagawas."

"Koga is another resident here, and Yoshino owns this place," Uryū supplied.

"We don't speak on it much. But a couple years ago, Koga caught the two boys rummaging through his garbage. It was a gloomy, starless night, and while it wasn't cold, it was cold enough. They were frightened and had been in the elements for a while. We found out they had run away from the Utagawa household, and while we weren't able to get the details of why, no one came looking for them. From what he could put together, they'd turned eighteen, and something terrible had started going on, and they ran away. But they're damaged, I suppose you would say. Whatever happened, it changed and warped them permanently," Yoshino said, almost sadly.

Aizen frowned and nodded. "Your cousin is eighteen, yes?"

Uryū nodded. "Yeah, and I don't know what to do! I called the police when I heard something, and they said that there was nothing to worry about, and I'm thinking they pay off the cops," he said, rubbing his eyes thoughtfully. He had no idea why he was getting emotional.

Uryū felt someone put an arm around his back and he was grateful of it. He sighed and turned into it, and realized that it had to have been Chad. For a second he almost said something but then he just sighed into the warm body next to him. It was either that or start crying almost immediately.

Aizen smiled at the sight. The bigger man had immediately gone to Uryū when he saw him breaking down emotionally. "I'll see what I can do, Uryū. And thank you, Yoshino, was it?" he said, standing and nodding at them.

"Ah, yes, come, I'll see you out," she said, smiling as she stood up and led him out the doorway. They spoke a little more and Aizen stopped and stared up the hill at the hulking house past the fence. He wondered what secrets it held. He was slowly uncovering them.

The next day, Ichigo was in class, but he was most certainly not doing well. He held his left arm against his chest and it was obvious it was giving him pain. As class ended, once again, he stopped Ichigo from leaving.

"Please, let me help you," Aizen said softly, using his hand to turn Ichigo's face toward him. "Something is going on, and you need help," he said, his heart aching merely from looking into those wide, infinitely sad eyes.

Ichigo's brows knitted together for a moment, more from the gentle touch on his face than the words he was hearing. "I…I want to," he said, finally, swallowing the ball in his throat.

"Then tell me, and let me help you," Aizen said softly.

"I…I can't…it isn't just about me," he said, biting into his lower lip as he spoke. "I have to…I can't run like they did. I can't leave them…"

"Ichigo, is someone making you do things you don't want to do?" he asked, again.

"N-no one makes me," he said quietly, looking away. Aizen knew he was lying.

"That's not true. You know it and so do I," he said softly.

Ichigo didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell someone, anyone, but he wasn't sure what would happen. He couldn't be sure the others would be safe. He could stay here, never go back, but they would suffer for it, for his own selfishness. "I…I can't…I don't know what to do," he said, and Aizen saw the conflict in the boy's eyes.

"Ichigo, I want to help you, please, let me?" he asked, softly, and there was something about those eyes that made Aizen's heart flip in his chest like never before. This close, and with him being this open and vulnerable, Aizen knew that there was more to this than his own desire to help a student in need.

"I can't, I can't let you…" he whispered, and practically ran from the classroom.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"You don't have Ichigo?" came the unbelieving voice on the other end of the phone.

Kaien Shiba frowned and shook his head. "No, why would I have Ichigo? He passed with Masaki," he said slowly. "I was told that when I went to Karakura to pick up Karin and Yuzu…"

"No, not possible," Isshin said, his head starting to spin. "No, it can't be him, he can't be there…"

"Isshin, what do you mean?" Kaien asked slowly.

"My son is alive, Kaien, he's alive and he's been hurt, and now I don't know how to fix it."


	6. Changing Winds of Chaos

A/N: Revisions to chapter one and two, so you might glance over them if you've read them already.

* * *

Isshin very quickly found out what had happened to his son. It didn't make it any easier once he knew, but he at least knew who to blame. It all came back to Inaba.

It took nearly a month of trying to figure out what had happened, and more than a little money to grease the palms of some less than legal enterprise owners, but at last, he sat in the grungy bar looking through file folders. He'd already had a heart to heart with the person to blame at the hospital. They probably wouldn't be making it to work the next day. Most of the files were smudged, nine years old now, and some were ripped and faded, but he figured enough out of what he had. Ichigo had been shot in the stomach the night Masaki died. He'd been rushed to the hospital and that's where things went sideways.

There were two sets of medical records.

One followed Ichigo from the ER where it listed he coded and died at 10:31 pm that night. The rest of the record recorded the morgue drawer his body had been placed in and that without a next of kin available, the body was cremated with the remains left for future pick up in one of the back rooms at the morgue. The body in the sealed urn in that room, however, did not belong to Ichigo Kurosaki.

The second, what Isshin knew now was the real medical record, was under a different name. Ichigo Choi. After having his "chat" with Dr. Makoto Kibune, he knew that the ER doctor was paid off by Inaba right after his Ichigo had been admitted. It seemed that Dr. Kibune was supposed to make sure he died. Kibune, while a man with few morals and a very large gambling debt owed to the wrong people, was a doctor first and swapped files with a young man the same age as Ichigo, this one did succumb to his wounds. Ichigo was then treated under the other child's name, who was a child at the local orphanage that had been hurt in an accident.

Before Kibune could contact anyone that could help, Ichigo had been taken to the orphanage and adopted under the assumed name. No one questioned it, especially the family that adopted him, the Utagawas. Kibune, though, had kept all the original files, on the chance he would need them one day. Those were the files that Isshin now had.

Kibune had tried to make all traces of Ichigo Kurosaki disappear that indicated he was alive after the accident, but changing all the records were difficult and there were discrepancies that someone who knew what they were looking for would be able to find. He had no tears left for himself, but as he sat there and contemplated what had happened to his son since that night, he found he had tears for him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen watched for nearly two months. It was now near November, and the weather was turning cold, the maple leaves now all fallen to the ground, and the trees were bare. He was steadily watching Ichigo Utagawa decline at an alarming rate, and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to talk to him, but the boy dashed out the door most days faster than he could get to him. He saw the Uryuu also tried to approach him.

Today would be an interesting class. The topic was human sexuality and the psychology behind attraction and love. This one was always interesting.

Aizen stood and leaned on the front of his class. "Alright class, what is sexuality?"

There were a couple giggles. "Okay," he said, smirking. "What types of sexuality are there?"

Renji raised his hand which considering that Aizen knew about his relationship with his ex-lover, Byakuya, made him smile. "Um, heterosexuality and homosexuality, and um bisexuality."

"Right. And what do those things mean, Mr. Abarai?" he said, eyes somewhat hooded.

Renji glanced at Rukia who sat beside him and shrugged. "Um, heterosexuals like the opposite sex, and homosexuals like the same sex, and bisexuals like both?" he asked.

Aizen nodded. "Somewhat right. But let's change the word 'sex' to 'gender'. Now are there more than two genders?"

There was a murmur and several nos and a few yeses.

"There are. So, if bisexuals are attracted to their own gender and the opposite gender, that means there are some that are attracted to other genders as well, usually referred to as omni or pansexual, meaning all genders," he said, looking around.

"How can there be more than two genders, you have a penis or a vagina, that's it, right?" someone said from the back.

Aizen tapped his head. "This is gender, not this," he said, gesturing at his crotch. "The biological equipment you are born with doesn't dictate gender. Transgender people exist because of this reason. There are those that are considered non-binary, which include those that are gender fluid, gender queer, and bigender. Someone that identifies with their assigned birth gender is cisgender, not 'normal' because that in essence says that the person is abnormal that does not identify with their assigned birth gender."

There were murmurs around the room. "So that's where Pansexual comes in," Renji muttered. "So if you date a transgender woman who has the guy parts still, you're dating a woman, but she just has a penis too."

"Correct. You're on the ball, Renji, but I suppose you'd have to be," Aizen said before he thought, smirking as he continued. "Now, have these ideas of gender and sexuality always been accepted?"

There were muttered negatives. "No, and in fact, homosexuality, which includes pan, bi and other orientations of sexuality other than heterosexuality, used to be considered a sexual deviancy that needed to be cured. Now, how many of you in this class believe you know a person's sexuality and gender by looking at them?" he said, glancing around.

Several people raised their hands. "Good, shall we play a little game? Everyone come to the front and line up. If you really are uncomfortable when I ask, you can decline to answer. I want everyone to write a number over their head on the chalk board. And then, one by one, everyone is going to write down what they think their fellow classmates are in regards to gender and sexuality. You don't have to write your name on the paper, I'll take a roll call and you'll all get credit as long as I receive papers for every student. Step forward and return to your seat if you don't wish to participate at all, and you'll still receive credit."

Everyone lined up, most of them more curious than anything else. After a few minutes, everyone took a turn walking down the line and writing what they thought on their papers. Ichigo, though huddled inside his hoodie, filled out the paper like everyone else and returned to the line. Aizen kept the papers in a stack and shuffled them so he wouldn't see who handed in which one.

"Now, I'll go down the row, and I'd like everyone to give their gender identity and sexual orientation, or decline to answer if you wish. Remember, nothing in this room goes beyond it, on pain of an F from me," he said, smiling at them.

Uryuu was first in line. "Um, homosexual, and cisgender, I guess, I never thought of it, but I identify with being male…" he said, looking a bit flushed at speaking in front of the others about it.

He glanced at Menoly who was next. "Um, I'm bisexual, I guess, I mean, I've been with girls and guys and I guess I'm kind of gender fluid. I'm also dating Loly right now," she said, glancing next to her at the dark haired girl. Loly nodded. "Yeah, we're dating, Menoly keeps me from doing really stupid stuff. I'm homosexual, pure lesbian, penis is gross," she said, smirking at Menoly. "I'm cis gender I guess, never thought about it." There were a few chuckles at the comments.

Renji was next and he shrugged. "I'm gonna say I'm cis gender, I definitely am a guy. I like my penis, thanks. However, I'm I guess pansexual, the parts don't matter much, and I definitely can handle someone else's penis." Rukia, standing beside him slapped him. "I'm cisgender and heterosexual," she said quickly glaring at Renji for his comments. He shrugged and muttered, "Its true" under his breath.

Ichigo was next and he glanced up and shrugged. "I'm…not sure yet, on either," he said, and looked back down at his feet.

Shinji and Hiyori stood next to him and were already arguing. They were incessantly arguing it seemed. Shinji smirked. "Um, okay well, in case the amount we argue is any indication, Hiyori and I are together, both genderqueer, and both pansexual, I guess. I'd say bi, but since we both date each other, pan covers it." Hiyori glared at him than smacked him. "I coulda said that myself, princess," she muttered. Shinji rolled his eyes up. "What he didn't say is that neither of us want to transition to the other gender, we're happy as we are and with each other." Shinji growled. "Happy is a relative term," he muttered. Hiyori smacked his arm again.

Emilou was next and smiled at Aizen. "Well, sir, you know I'm in a polyamorous relationship, and I'm homosexual, though I experimented when I was younger. I'd say I'm more gender fluid than anything." Ggio looked up when Emilou elbowed him. "Um, yeah, heterosexual and cis I guess." There were murmurs because most of the class knew who he was dating. Toshiro was next nodded and said. "I've never really thought about it, but I guess heterosexual and cisgender."

Cirucci leaned against the wall twirling her purple hair. "Um, guess I'm heterosexual and cisgender too. Never really thought about it though, just always been okay with myself." Ikkaku stood next to her and looked up. "Well, I'm a little different I guess, cis gender but I'm heteroflexible." A muttering of confusion came through the room. "I generally like girls, but I'm with a guy right now. My boyfriend is the only guy I've ever loved, so yeah."

Aizen smiled at him, having hoped someone would have something he hadn't spoken of. Di Roy was next, and as Aizen expected, he looked up and grinned. "Pansexual, poly, whatever man, if it feels good, do it, I say. Cis gender I guess." Tesra shook his head. "Bisexual, bigender," he said quietly. Shuhei sighed and nodded. "I'm heterosexual and cisgender," he said and glanced at Abirama next to him. "Heterosexual and cisgender, too but I've got a lot of queer and non-binary friends, so…"

Aizen walked down the row. "Now, I want you all to think about this. Were any of you surprised by what you thought you knew?"

A general affirmative murmur went through the room. "Return to your seats, now."

Everyone sat down. Di Roy spoke up, "What about you, Doc Aizen?" he asked.

Aizen looked up, surprised by the question. "Well, what do you all think? Especially after this demonstration?"

"Um, I say pansexual and cisgender," Renji said with a smirk.

Aizen nodded. "Anyone else?"

"Heterosexual and cisgender," Cirucci said from her seat.

He smiled. "Do you guys really want to know?" There was a big consensus. "Okay," Aizen said with a smirk. "I'm cisgender, demisexual and homoromantic."

"A what?" Di Roy asked loudly.

Aizen smiled and leaned back. "I typically am not sexually attracted to anyone unless I have a romantic bond with them first. Romantic is an alternative to sexuality for those of us that feel mild to no sexual attraction, but desire the bond that comes with a relationship. I am not considered asexual because I do often feel sexual attraction, however, it has to be someone I am very close to."

The buzzer for the class went off and everyone started to stand. "Weekend assignment: I want a paper on perceptions of gender and sexuality and how reality and perception are not the same, and why assumptions based on perceptions like these can damage relationships!" he shouted as everyone filed out of the room. He sighed and looked up to see Harribel come in.

"Interesting sounding class," she said.

"Just got to the section on gender and sexuality. Always fun to burst their bubbles of what is 'normal'," he said, smiling.

"We're having another beach get together this weekend, will you be there?" she asked, a rare smile crossing her lips.

Aizen nodded. "I think I will, it was a great place to relax last time. Should I bring anything this time?" he asked as he stood to walk out of the room with her.

"Perhaps some beer, Nel has a tendency to drink most of it before I get any…" she said as she gave him a sideways grin.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was exhausted. Noba's words that this was going to kill him constantly rang in his head because he was beginning to think he was right. He didn't think there was anything that didn't ache or hurt. He had a constant headache, and he was relatively certain that his nose had been broken at least twice. He also knew that his arm had healed badly and he was in constant pain where the break had been. Inaba had been back several times, much to Mabashi's annoyance. Luckily, Ichigo hadn't suffered any further breaks, but it was still more unpleasant than anything else.

Saturday night had come again and he was curled into the corner of his cot and hoping that everyone was too high or busy to remember him, or the others. He'd done what he could, but there had been a few times that Ririn and Nozomi had been drug upstairs. Usually, they went easier on the ones in high school to keep nosy teachers at a distance. For that, Ichigo was thankful because he did not want any of them treated the way he was treated or how the ones that traded sex favors for drugs were.

"Berry?" came the voice that Ichigo had been hoping not to hear tonight. Mabashi. He swallowed and got up, noting that the others didn't look at him as he left. He crossed his arms over his chest and went up to where he waited at the top of the stairs.

Mabashi saw it. The rounded shoulders, the defeated stance. He'd done this. He'd turned this once vibrant person into this. Now that the drugs were gone, he realized how sick and twisted the whole thing was. He grabbed Ichigo by the arm and drug him into the nearest bedroom with a lock, slamming it behind them and locking it before turning around and seeing that he just stood there, arms crossed across his chest, looking down at the floor.

"Ichigo, look at me," he said, using his name for the first time to address him.

Ichigo looked up, and Mabashi could see the dampness at the corner of his eyes. He always cried, always silently, and if you didn't look, you didn't see it. He didn't want him to cry. He moved forward quickly and grabbed both his biceps and kissed him gently on the lips for the first time in five years of being alone with him. He felt him tense and gasp in surprise. He leaned forward and placed his forehead on Ichigo's.

"I want you to leave here with me. Tonight. I can't watch this anymore. I can't see you cry anymore."

Ichigo blinked rapidly and swallowed several times before he could manage a shaky, "What?"

"Let me have you, just for once, and let me show you how much I love you, like I should have a long time ago. Let me have you, all of you, and without tears for once. Let me have tonight, and then, I'll take you away from here, and if you want to leave and go somewhere else, you can, but let me show you what I can be to you," he said, stepping back and staring into Ichigo's eyes.

Ichigo was dumfounded, to be honest. He had no words and just nodded his ascent and Mabashi, unlike most times, leaned forward and pulled him into a passionate and gentle kiss the likes of which Ichigo had never experienced. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd never been kissed by anyone. He melted into the touches and for once, let the fear go. Even as Mabashi brought him over with him, his own body responding unlike ever before, he didn't fear. Mabashi fell beside him in a heap, panting and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"Thank you, Ichigo, thank you for that," he said softly.

"But if I leave…" he whispered.

Mabashi shook his head and spoke quietly. "I've got it planned. I've got this buddy on the police force; I've been working for him as a CI, a criminal informant. It was how I got out of lock up, and at first I wasn't going to help him, but after that night in the kitchen, I looked at myself in the mirror and I knew. I knew what I had to do. I couldn't spiral back into the drugs and I couldn't stand that look on your face when you looked at me. I've loved you since the day I met you, but I've been so fucked up I couldn't do anything about it the right way. You've got no reason to forgive me. You've got no reason to stay with me, even though I'm begging you to stay. I've done terrible things to you."

Ichigo stared at him in disbelief. "I don't know, I…I don't…"

Mabashi put a finger on his lips. "Tonight was all I wanted, okay? To be with you without the tears. Just…just think about the rest of it. There's a long time before things work out. But tonight, we're leaving to my guy. He'll make sure the rest of them are safe. Come on, we're leaving," he said, standing up and pulling on his clothes. A few minutes later, he pulled Ichigo behind him into the living room where Yoshi was smoking a pipe and watching something on TV.

"Yoshi," Mabashi yelled to get her attention.

"The fuck you want?" she said, looking up to see Mabashi with Ichigo standing beside him, or rather behind him, obviously not wanting to be there.

"I'm leaving here with him. I'm not letting you do this shit anymore to him," he said, staring at her.

She blinked then slowly put the pipe down on the wooden table before she stood up and walked toward them. She smiled. "Okay, go ahead. But he knows what happens if he leaves."

"Mabashi, stop, no, just don't, I'm fine, I'm here because…" Ichigo said, seeing the crazy light in Yoshi's eyes. She was lit, he knew it. She'd been hitting all sorts of things today, and now she was smoking a pipe. This was always bad, when she was using the crack pipe was when she was the most volatile. The blow, it made her a little crazy, but to smoke it…

"No, I'm done, Yoshi," he said loudly.

Everyone's eyes were on him and her now, including Ryo, and the grungy new guy. Haineko was sitting on the lap of one of the other regulars, Ugaki. Beside him on the sofa, Muramasa was high out of his mind but watching intently.

"You're done, you little shit?" she said, staring at him. "I let you fucking come into my house and fuck one of my goddamned brats on a regular basis only because you buy so damn much fucking cocaine that it's hard to tell you no. You wanted to take this cunt's virginity when he was fucking thirteen and I fucking _let_ you, do you know why?" she asked, glaring at him. Mabashi stared back. "Because it was amusing to me to watch you do it. And you know what? I've got it on tape, you little fucker. You were fucking twenty years old, and I have a fucking video of your sorry ass raping a thirteen year old kid."

Mabashi's grip on Ichigo had gone slack as he stared at her. "So if you think you can come in here and threaten me, you are more fucked up than anyone here. You think I let you bastards, any of you, come in here and fuck this little underage fucking kids without a reason?" she said, looking around at the ones in the room. "I fucking have every one of you by the goddamned balls in one way or another. So if anyone decides to fuck me over, well, I can fuck you over harder. You want to know how I've managed to keep this going for so long? That's why. Half the people I have working for me are fucking blackmailed because I have pretty little videos of them fucking underage brats. Sure, turn me over to your cop friend, and yes, I know about him, Mabashi. I'll fuck you six ways from Sunday you little fuck. The drug charges won't be shit compared to rape charges I can put on you. Ichigo's not the only boy-cunt you've fucked here."

Ichigo felt his stomach drop. She knew everything. She knew Mabashi was a CI. She… Ichigo had thought she was just crazy. She wasn't, she was crazy smart. Far smarter than anyone gave her credit for. She leaned forward and pushed Mabashi back and grabbed Ichigo by the shirt, bringing him up to her face.

"And you, to fucking go along with it. I guess I need to teach you a lesson you won't forget, Ryo, go get Momo, Rin and Hanataro. We're going for a little fun ride," she said, smiling at Ichigo.

Ryo got up and headed toward the door to the basement and Ichigo's eyes went wide. "No, anything, no, leave them alone!" he said, trying to get out of Yoshi's insanely strong grasp.

"No, you little slut. I heard everything Mabashi told you in that bedroom. I heard what you did, and I heard your whore ass moaning because he was nice to you for once. I hope you fucking enjoyed it because that's the last time anyone is going to fuck you without making you hurt, a lot," she said and punched him square across the jaw, sending him into a black abyss and dropping him to the floor.

Ryo had brought up the other three. She smiled. "Come on, kids, we're gonna have some fun," she said and ushered them out the door.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen was enjoying himself, despite dwelling on Ichigo in his class. He saw one of his other students, Toshiro, sitting in a circle talking with Emilou and a couple of other students from the school. Nel and Grimmjow were out in the surf playing back and forth despite the ice cold water. The bonfire was warm and welcoming and he was comfortable. Szayel and his new boyfriend Findorr were sitting close to each other, their hands interlaced as they watched the fire quietly. Nnoitra had come along this time and flopped down in the sand beside Aizen.

"Hey Aizen, man, what's up?" he asked, scratching underneath his eyepatch.

"Oh, not too much. Tell me, how'd you lose your eye, anyway? I find it interesting that we have a one eyed shop teacher," Aizen said, smiling.

"Ah, this, man, when I was a kid, thought I was Evel Knievel or some shit. Motorcycle stunt gone wrong, I'll spare ya the grisly details. Put it this way, I was damn lucky my eye was all I lost," he said with a smile at him. "Seen my girl anywhere?" he said, glancing around.

Aizen shook his head. "No, can't say that I have," he said as he glanced around. Nnoitra was married to an unusual girl, almost as perverted as he was. Lisa Yadōmaru, having kept her name, was a local police officer, and almost always could be found reading some manner of yaoi manga or gay erotica. She was also more than happy to tell everyone all the details.

"Well, tell my bitch to find me when she gets here," he said, standing up. Aizen smiled, knowing from the brief interactions he'd had with the pair of them, the constant banter and name calling was a form of endearment for them. Relationships always fascinated him in that way, though.

Twilight had just set in full when everyone heard the screeching of tires and breaks. Aizen looked up just in time to see a SUV come careening off the road and into one of the pillars halfway down the beach set to protect beachgoers from just such an occurrence. Nnoitra stood up and ran toward it along with Szayel immediately. He glanced over and saw Franceska on the phone with emergency services already and headed toward the wrecked car. He could see movement.

Behind him, he heard Toshiro's voice. "Momo?"

He glanced up and saw Grimmjow, dripping from the surf, helping a girl with dark hair out of the back of the car shakily before Toshiro went running toward her. He glanced over and saw Nnoitra pulling out a woman with dark green hair who was cussing and fighting him every step of the way. Szayel was helping two younger boys out of the back seat slowly, one had a bleeding wound on his head, and the other looked to have twisted his ankle.

"The fuck!" screamed the woman as she shook away Nnoitra. "Get the fuck off me, you fucker!"

Nnoitra stared at her for a moment as the sirens began to grow closer. "You are fucking high as a kite, lady," he said, staring at her. "What the hell are you thinking, driving around like that with three kids in the car?" he said, stepping back as she stumbled a bit. She had a good sized bruise on her head from the steering wheel.

"My fucking kids, you bastard! None of your goddamned business!" she screamed and lunged at Momo. Toshiro pulled her away and got a growl of frustration as he did so. "Let the little bitch go, you midget fucker. She goes with me, as do those other two fucking brats," she said, glaring at where Szayel was standing with Rin and Hanataro. Both of them looked completely scared out of their minds. Aizen had no idea what was happening.

Harribel stepped in front of the two boys and glared at her. "Yoshi Utagawa, why I've never had you come to one of my bonfires," she said dryly.

"Fuck you and your bonfires, you lesbo bitch!" she said. "Had my fucking gun I'd shoot your dumb blonde head off your fucking shoulders!" she screamed.

With that, she blinked a couple times and crumpled, passing out cold into the sand, most likely from the head injury. Aizen glanced at the two boys who were clinging to each other and almost hyperventilating and at the girl that Toshiro was clutching to him like a long lost sibling. Things grew hazy as the police and fire department showed up followed by ambulances. All those present were taken to the hospital and everyone there gave a statement. After everyone had left, Aizen stood with Harribel in the small parking lot.

"What happens now?" he asked her.

Harribel shook her head. "We hope the right people take notice."

Aizen watched her walk away and then stared at the night surf for a long time. A few minutes passed and something caught his attention fluttering caught in his windshield wiper. He turned and went to it and picked it out. It was a deep orange colored maple leaf.


	7. Chaos Unfolding

Chapter Seven

Chaos Unfolding

"So, Ms. Harribel, was it?" the nurse at the front desk of Karakura General said, looking up at her. "Relationship to the patient?"

Harribel glanced behind her at her girls. "None, they were injured at a beach party I was hosting…"

"Then I can't give you any information," the blonde nurse said with a shrug and turned away.

Harribel shook her head and went and sat down with the girls to wait and see what was going on with the poor kids in the car. They'd come to the hospital afterward, hoping they could find out something, anything, about what was going on. She looked up as Aizen came into the waiting room and walked toward her.

"Tier, have you heard anything?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing, they say non family can't get information. I'm not even sure why I'm here in that case…" she said, looking toward the admittance door where they had been most likely taken to.

A couple of men that neither of them knew walked up briskly to the nurses station and spoke with her for a moment before pointing over to Harribel and Aizen. As they came closer the glanced between the two of them and blinked.

"Kisuke Urahara?" Aizen asked, frowning deeply as the blonde haired one of the pair came close enough that he could see his face. He wore a bucket hat with white and green stripes and he had almost not recognized him.

"Sōsuke, so good to see you," he said, coming up and hugging him tightly for a long moment before releasing him. "Sōsuke, this is my partner, Edrad Liones," he said, indicating the larger, broad man with hair that was dyed half black and half red.

"What, what are you doing here?" he asked, shaking his head.

"Well, I actually went into police work after I transferred to my new school. I'm the Captain of the Internal Affairs division on the Karakura police, and my partner for this case is Detective Liones, lead detective for the Child and Domestic abuse division. We'll be joined shortly by…oh, there they are," he said looking up as two more people in trench coats came in the door and noticed Urahara waiting there.

"Sōsuke, this is Lieutenant Kensei Muguruma, he's the head of the Drug enforcement division, and his partner Lieutenant Sajin Komamura, head of human trafficking. And our final member," he said, looking up as a very tall silvery haired woman entered and headed toward them. "Captain Isane Kotetsu from Special Victims."

"I don't understand, what's going on? This is quite a team…" Aizen said, glancing around.

Urahara nodded. "It is and it seems we're dragging you into this mess. I heard through 'Kuya that he'd managed to get you back to Karakura, and I thought I'd visit you sooner. However, it seems we were fated to reunite under less than ideal circumstances. Come on, we'll secure a conference room," he said just as the doors to back where the patients were burst open and everyone in the waiting room looked up.

Yoshi, wearing a hospital gown and blood dripping down her arm where she'd obviously pulled out her IVs, came storming out.

"You can't fuckin' keep me here, nothing wrong with me, fuck you and your medical…" she started then locked eyes on Harribel.

"You…you fucking bitch," she said, and came straight for the blonde woman. "You and your fucking bonfire lame-ass fucking parties. I don't know how, but you're fucking at fault!" she screamed at her.

Harribel put a hand on Edrad as he started to intercede. "Hm, so my parties are lame as compared to yours, I am certain."

"You fuckin' cunt licking whore, I should fucking shoot you! Where'd they put my gun," she said, realizing she was center stage.

"Yoshi, you were injured, you should return to your bed," Harribel said gently, seemingly not bothered by the other woman's angry yelling.

"Fuck you; you think you're better than me! That look on your face that somehow you're better than me! Well, fuck you! People come to me to feel _good_. They come to you to feel _cultured._ Fuck that. I give people what they want! All the sex and drugs and everything they want. You…you twat!"

For whatever reason, Yoshi seemed to be teetering. Harribel guessed she'd been given something. "Yoshi, you are nothing but a yabbo, and of no concern of me." She turned away from her as Yoshi lunged at her falling flat.

"I'm not a…a…what the fuck is a yabbo?" she muttered, passing out finally.

"Yabbo?" Aizen said to her as they brought out a gurney and wheeled her away again.

"Uncultured brute," she said with a sigh, as she turned to the five that were watching them.

"Well, that was impressive," Urahara said, glancing at the team. "Now, Sōsuke, my dear, would you care to join us as we go talk to the kids?"

Aizen blinked. "Of course, I'd love to. I'm worried about a student of mine that lives in this household…"

Urahara nodded and led them all to the nurses' station and arranged to go meet with the three kids that had been in the car. They'd all been put in the same room to make things easier, and since they apparently were anxious without each other.

Urahara knocked gently on the door and a short young man with silver hair opened it and stared at him.

"Yes, Captain Urahara with the police, may we come in?" he asked.

Toshiro nodded and stepped back. Urahara and his team came in, each taking up a casual position somewhere in the room. Aizen stayed next to Urahara.

"Momo?" Urahara said, looking at the dark haired girl that the boy who answered the door went and sat by. "I'm Kisuke, and these are my friends from the police." He noted her glance at them all. "I understand that there may have been some officers and people that were less than helpful along the way because of something Yoshi had over them, am I correct?"

Momo nodded. "I heard her telling Ichigo and Mabashi she had videos of people to keep them from telling what happened there."

"Mabashi, huh?" Edrad said, nodding. Mabashi was his informant. "What was he doing?"

Momo shook her head. "He wanted to leave with Ichigo, he said he loved him, and wanted to make him safe and Yoshi didn't l-like it."

"Really? She didn't want Mabashi to take Ichigo away?" Urahara said. "Why didn't he take him away anyway after she was gone?"

Rin and Hanataro were sitting together on the next bed. "She…she was really loud. She…she said that if Mabashi took him, she'd…she'd get him in trouble for what he'd done. That she had videos of what he'd done," Hanataro said softly.

Urahara pulled up a chair between the two beds. "Did she now? What had Mabashi done that was so terrible that he wouldn't go through with leaving with Ichigo?"

Rin swallowed. "She said she had a video of him…him…" he stopped, his face betraying his innocence.

Momo, older than the others, though only by a couple years swallowed hard. "She said she had a video of Mabashi raping Ichigo when Ichigo was thirteen and Mabashi was twenty. Sh-she said she had more too, of the other times, and Mabashi backed down and that's when she took us out, to punish Ichigo for going along with Mabashi…because she knew it would hurt him more if she hurt us."

Aizen had a hard time keeping his face neutral and he was amazed Urahara could do it. "Okay, you guys all get some sleep, we're going to work on our end. Do you know who else she was holding evidence on?"

Momo shook her head. "I don't know, she said 'cops' and the 'right people' when she had us in the car, she was talking about how no one could touch her."

Urahara nodded. "Okay, we'll talk again."

Urahara led the others out the door and to a conference room. Everyone sat down.

"Okay, first things first, warrants have to be issued before we can go into that house. We've got some testimony, enough for a warrant, but not enough to go in without one. We know that Yoshi is probably the more volatile which matches with other reports. Now, we book her on the Driving While Intoxicated, with the influence she's got, I doubt she'll be in jail long," he said, sighing.

"I don't understand, why all this about her getting out of it? There's plenty to hold her on," Aizen said, looking around.

Urahara nodded. "Sōsuke, love, I know, I know. Problem is those people she's blackmailing. We're pretty sure that the booking judge is one of them. The one we need to issue warrants isn't, so far as we know, but we've got to wait until after eight for that."

Isane looked around. "Even I've got my hands tied. Half of my officers are on her list, and none will admit to it, as well as the drugs and human trafficking forces. We don't know who to trust, so we're down to the five of us."

Aizen shook his head. "How long have you known about this?" he asked, staring at his friend, well used to be more than friend, Urahara.

"Too long. We've been navigating the adoption system and trying to find the holes that they've punched in it. We've so far managed to get those we know of shifted to other positions without alerting her, but time was growing short because if we removed the rest, she'd run, maybe taking the kids with her," he said, taking off the hat and running a hand through his blonde hair. "The last clue was the drug supplier they use coming to town and staying. We had to move now to not only get her but him as well."

"Ichigo is in my class and he's been suffering for months," he said sternly, staring at his ex with a hard glare.

"I know, Sōsuke, I know, and I swear, we've been working as fast as we could. Would you rather I spooked them and had them take off with Ichigo and the others where we couldn't find them?" he said sadly looking at him.

Their affair had been short, only a year, and Urahara had ended up falling out of love with Aizen and back into love with his high school sweetheart, Yoruichi Shihōin. Last he'd heard, they'd gotten married and had two kids they'd adopted. He was having a hard time separating the man he'd once loved briefly and the man who had put Ichigo in danger.

"We tried, Professor Aizen," said the tall one with blond hair from across the table. Sajin had been his name, Aizen thought. "We did. We found the boy resistant to help from the outside."

There was a knock at the door and Urahara cleared his throat and called for them to enter. He smiled. "Dr. Ishida," he said, standing as the tall, thin doctor entered, pushing his silver glasses up as he nodded.

"Captain," he said. "I've taken lead on the case, considering that it seems I'm one of the few staff members that came up on a short list of people they know haven't been involved with the corruption from the Uttagawas."

"Of course, please, sit," Urahara said, motioning to the seat at the end. "What have you found, Dr. Ishida?"

"All three have suffered systematic physical abuse, however, I'm pleased to report none seem to have experienced any sort of sexual abuse," he said, looking through the files. "In fact, the female victim said that it was another male in the house that kept them from being hurt too often," he said. "The oldest boy, Ichigo," he said, swallowing and looking up. "Captain, I must admit that I may not be able to head this case."

"Why is that?" Urahara asked. Aizen smiled.

"You're Uryuu's father, so you think this Ichigo is your nephew," Aizen said, nodding.

Ryuken nodded. "Of course, Dr. Aizen, Uryuu has said much of you. And yes."

Urahara nodded. "It can't be helped, Dr. Ishida, you'll have to stay with the case. I can't trust anyone else."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Please, wake up," Ichigo whispered to the passed out man in the bathtub. It was almost six am, and Ichigo knew something bad was going to happen. He knew that the person the most susceptible was going to be Ririn. He couldn't get everyone help but he could try and get her out.

With Momo, Rin and Hanataro at the hospital, he knew they were safe, at least for now. News had come back quickly when Ryo got the call that Yoshi had wrecked the car and her and the three kids had all been taken to the hospital under police guard. Yoshi had been arrested once the doctors had cleared her. She'd suffered a moderate concussion but nothing else. Ryo would have to spend the day trying to get her out of jail, but he had said that he was going to have no issues with it. Ichigo didn't doubt it. Somehow, he was sure any charges would mysteriously disappear. They always seemed to somehow.

Three days before, Ichigo had nearly walked into a bedroom where Sawatari, the oldest "party goer" in their house. Sawatari, though, was only at the house to get his hands on opioids. Ichigo didn't know much about the older man, as he had to be in his seventies, but he'd heard he had chronic pain and got hooked on narcotic pain killers. However, when Ichigo walked in on him, he'd been talking to Ugaki, the strange, awkward guy that was a voyeur and typically would get high and watch people pair off and have sex. Sawatari had been telling Ugaki that he had a fear of dying in an opium den.

"Please, wake up, Sawatari," Ichigo whispered and shook Sawatari's shoulder.

Sawatari's eyes fluttered and he stared up into Ichigo's face with a frown. "What is it?"

"Please, you have to listen to me. Yoshi got picked up last night, and they arrested her this morning. She'll be back later, and she's going to be in a bad way when she gets back. They took three of the young ones, and after the wreck she had, I don't think they'll come back. You told Ugaki that you didn't want to die here, if you're serious, please, leave today, and please take Ririn with you," he said softly. "Please, last time, Yoshi nearly killed her when Ho and Ban left."

Sawatari sat up slowly, his head pounding. He nodded slowly. "Are you sure you don't wish to go too?" he asked slowly, looking at the boy.

"I…I can't. I have to stay with Noba and Nozomi. But take her. She's down waiting at the top of the basement stairs. Take her to the hospital and drop her off, or take her to the police station, somewhere, just take her and go," he said, insistently.

Ichigo helped him out of the tub and to the door. He paused and looked back and shook his head. How did he ever get this messed up? He pulled out his phone and stared at it.

"You're a grandpa!" the picture was captioned and there was a picture of a tiny baby girl.

No, he had to go. He did exactly as the poor boy asked. Maybe if he did, they could stop Yoshi from coming back here. He nodded and headed down to get Ririn. It was time.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ririn stood at the door to the ER and wondered exactly what she was supposed to do. The old man left her there and she didn't know exactly what she was to do. He sighed and went in, going to the desk.

"What can I do for you, dear?" the nurse said.

"I think my sister and brothers are here," she said softly.

"Oh, what are the names?" the nurse said, looking to her computer screen.

"Utagawa," she said and the nurse looked up at her.

"Wait here," she said softly and left.

A moment later, she came back with the silver haired Isane, who kneeled down and smiled at Ririn. "I'm Isane. You said you're one of the Utagawa children?"

Ririn nodded. "Um, yeah, my brother had this old man take me when he left and he left me here. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Isane smiled. "Come with me, first we need to see how you are and then you can see your two brothers and sister. They're just fine, there was a wreck but no one was hurt badly."

Ririn stopped and stared at her. "Wh-what about Yoshi? Is she here?"

"No, sweetheart. She's in jail right now. They took her to jail about an hour ago. Just come with me, and we'll get you checked out," she said, and Ririn nodded.

A couple hours later, Ririn had been put in the room with the others, the room set with a rotating guard of one of the five team members on the outside. Isane and Ryuken went back into the room while Edrad guarded the room. Urahara looked over the file on the new girl that had come in.

"She said that this man named Sawatari brought her here. She said he always used drugs but that was all. I looked him up, he suffers from chronic pain, and it was recorded that his doctor refused to prescribe any longer," Ryuken said, passing over the file on Sawatari.

Urahara nodded. "And her condition?"

"I've sent Dr. Aizen to talk to her," Ryuken said, sighing. "He has more experience dealing with this than most of my psychiatrists here, let alone being able to trust them. Medically, she's had a lot of broken bones. She's very small for her age, appearing to be fourteen when she's really around seventeen years old. Severe malnutrition, and severe sexual abuse. She's had several broken bones that are healed badly, and she's going to require surgery to fix several things or she'll be in lifelong pain. Mentally, she's distant and avoidant. Her only worry is for her siblings, especially Ichigo because she said something about them being made to pay for their way, and Ichigo was eighteen, so he didn't have money coming in anymore."

Sajin shook his head. "This matches with the report we could get from the twins. She used them sparingly until they were eighteen and then told them they had to pay their way. The twins, though, they were more severely affected and could barely communicate what had happened, so none of it would hold up even for a warrant."

Urahara nodded. "This should help the warrant, even if the warrant officer is on Yoshi's list, there's no way they can deny it with this kind of evidence. Everyone, you know what to do. I've gotten word that the longest I can hold the woman is five this evening. She's already been bailed out, and everyone's dragging feet to keep her from leaving. Let's see if we can't get this done before then."

Unfortunately, things weren't finished by five, and Yoshi left, smiling, and Urahara and his team were left in frustration because the warrants were to be issued the next morning. They'd have time to run. Urahara nearly broke the window in the conference room before he reclaimed his calm.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Someone! Help! Wake up!" and a loud pounding came from the door next door.

Luppi, in the middle of playing his video game over to the Wonderweiss who had been up for the last hour or so. It was almost two am. Wonderweiss had been at an photography exhibit by one of his favorites, Ran'Tao, and had gotten back and feel into bed immediately at five pm. Luppi, in the middle of a hypomanic bout, had spent the day cleaning. Finally, unable to clean more, he'd stopped and started playing video games until the episode passed. Wonderweiss had joined when he woke up. Both got up and went to the door to see a girl standing in front of Uryuu and Chad's door beating on it furiously.

Uryuu opened the door, bleary eyed and shoved his glasses on his face and stared. "Wha?" he asked sleepily.

"Please, help me, she's gonna kill him, she's gonna kill him this time, and I don't know who to tell! Just help him!" she said, staring back over the hill at the Utagawa house. Uryuu woke up immediately and nodded. Chad handed him his shoes, and had already put his on. He nodded thanks, and looked at Luppi across the way.

"Stay with Luppi," he said, pushing the young girl toward her. "What's your name?"

"Nozomi, Nozomi Utagawa," she said, staring at him vacantly.

"Got it," Uryuu said and both he and Chad took off toward the fence that separated them. He didn't need to ask who he was. Somehow, Uryuu already knew.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Noba's hands were shaking when he'd shoved Nozomi out of the small basement window and told her to run. He wouldn't have fit; it was far too small even for his thin frame. He fumbled through the bag of found items under the floorboard he'd hidden and winced as he heard Yoshi screaming above them again. She'd been here about fifteen minutes and her voice hadn't stopped in that time. He found a cell phone he'd grabbed, but the battery was almost dead. He swallowed and dialed in emergency and he dropped the stupid thing when he heard a resounding thump above him. He didn't see where it went. He hoped it stayed on long enough for them to trace it…

Ichigo had never seen Yoshi like this. She was beyond angry. She'd been let out at almost five that afternoon, and from what Ichigo could tell, she'd spent the entire time getting lit up and drinking heavily. She was swinging around one of her pistols, and everyone in the house had scattered. Ichigo, though, couldn't run because she'd snatched him the moment she saw him.

He couldn't understand much of what she was saying, but he thought it amounted to it being his fault because she wouldn't have left the night before if not because of him. He tried to weather it, hoping she'd just wear herself out, but she'd already shot into the walls several times. He heard the door open and close and heard a shout. Mabashi's voice.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Mabashi screamed, coming over and trying to grab Ichigo's arm out of Yoshi's grip. She instead whipped him away and sent him falling over the coffee table, his hands crashing through the glass surface and if he hadn't been numb already he would have felt the cuts.

"Whatever the fuck I want, you little whore loving bitch," she said, snapping her hand up and pulling Ichigo back up.

"Don't," Ichigo said, staring at Mabashi.

Mabashi stopped. Both knew that Yoshi with a loaded gun was very dangerous. "Yoshi, come on, don't do this, you don't want to…"

She snapped Ichigo forward, and Mabashi could see his arm was starting to swell around her grip on his forearm. It was the same arm Inaba had broken not long ago. Ichigo winced, but landed on his knees beside her, holding his bloody hands in front of him.

"I want to kill him, and you, and all these fuckers," she screamed, but then smiled. "But you know, why not share the fun first, right?" she said, sliding the gun into the back of her jeans. Mabashi started to move, but she flicked a syringe out of her pocket before he could get close. "Ichigo, you're such a pain in the ass, but here, I'll let you go out riding a great high, how about that?"

Ichigo tried to jerk away but she slammed the needle into his neck and shoved the plunger down in one motion. Ichigo gasped as the drugs hit his system. Yoshi shoved him away from her and started laughing as he teetered on his knees. Vaguely he heard Mabashi's voice asking what did she do? He felt hands on him and he looked up into Mabashi's eyes. He smiled, he thought he did, at least, his face was numb, and planted a light kiss on Mabashi's lips before he felt the world slipping and his body began to seize.

Mabashi gasped as Ichigo started convulsing in his hands. He laid him down and went to grab Yoshi. "You fucking bitch!" he screamed but stopped short, still standing over Ichigo's body and looked down as red blossomed in his chest. He blinked and looked up to see Yoshi grinning over the barrel of the gun. He had enough time to glance at Ichigo before he fell to the floor beside him.

Ichigo felt his body go slack and opened his eyes to realize he was staring into Mabashi's. Only they weren't alive…they were dead, and he felt his heart pounding out of his chest. He felt the world tilt and darken.

Yoshi stopped laughing. "Oh fuck. Fuck…" she said.

Ryo grabbed her arm. "We have to go now, Yoshi," he said, grabbing her and pulling her out of the house, peeling out and disappearing down the road in Ryo's black Mustang.

Uryuu and Chad found the door open and ran in, seeing someone prone in the doorway to the next room, Uryuu dropped to his knees and checked for pulse, finding none, then seeing what he'd been afraid of.

"Ichigo!" he said, gasping and jumping over the other body to take his pulse. "He's alive!" he said, feeling a very thread pulse. "Chad?" he said, looking up, but he already heard sirens.


	8. Resulting Chaos

Chapter Eight

Resulting Chaos

Harribel and Aizen were sitting with Momo, Hanataro and Rin because they couldn't sleep that night. All three were worried because they knew that nothing was going to be done until the morning about Yoshi and Ryo. They had been joined briefly by Ririn, but she was currently undergoing a CT scan of some of her older breaks. Sung Sun, and Mila Rose had all headed down to the waiting room. They had debated heading home since the next day was Monday, but Harribel and Aizen had both canceled classes and informed the staff what had happened. Apacci decided to go ahead and go home to be there in case someone called while Harribel was in the hospital. It was almost four am when the nurses in the station burst into action.

"Something big," Harribel said, standing and moving toward the door. They were in the largest room toward the front, waiting for the three kids to be released.

A few moments later, a group of nurses came by with a gurney shouting things as they moved. "Male, eighteen, likely overdose! We have no idea what, tacacardyia and respiratory distress! Intubated in the ambulance, almost lost pulse twice!"

Aizen caught the distinct bright mop of orange hair. "Ichigo?" he said out loud, and one of the nurses turned toward him.

"You, follow me, you know him?" she said, Aizen running after her while she was making notes in the chart. The gurney disappeared through the next set of doors and she stopped outside them with Aizen.

"Um, yes, he's the adopted brother of the three Utagawa children. No doubt he's suffered something because…he's overdosed? What happened?" he asked, trying to see past her.

"Sir, I don't know anything right now, we just know what the paramedics were told when they arrived. Please, if you wish to know more, I believe there are some police officers in the waiting room with the witnesses," she said and nodded, going through the doors.

Aizen watched her go then went back where Harribel waited. "Was it him?" she asked quietly.

Inside the room, Sung Sun and Mila Rose had kept the three young ones occupied. Aizen nodded. "I don't know how bad, but it was him." He came into the room and nodded.

"Kids, I need to tell you they just brought Ichigo in. I don't know what happened yet, but they're helping him. They think an overdose. I'm going to see if I can find the police officers," Aizen said, nodding to them.

"Ichigo doesn't do drugs," Momo said softly looking at Aizen. "If he's overdosed, she gave it to him. She tried to kill him."

Rin and Hanataro exchanged a frightened look. Aizen put a hand on Hanataro's shoulder. "Don't worry yet, he's here and he's alive. We'll go from there. Tier, will you stay with them? I'm going to see if Kisuke is out in the waiting room."

Harribel nodded. "Of course," she said, sitting down beside Rin and putting an arm around him. He immediately turned and started sobbing into her chest.

"Shh, now honey," Harribel said softly. "You know, I've got a son, he's grown now, but I took him in when he was young," she said gently, stroking Rin's hair.

Mila Rose giggled. "Oh remember when we first came home with Wondy?" she said, smiling at Sung Sun who grinned in return.

All three of the others were watching them now. "Wondy?" asked Momo.

"Short for Wonderweiss," Harribel said. "He's biologically my nephew but his parents couldn't take care of him because of his special needs."

"Special needs?" Hanataro asked, wiping away the tears collecting in his own eyes.

"He has autism, and doesn't speak. He was a toddler, almost three, when we took him in. It was hard because he doesn't learn like other kids, and together the four of us managed to raise him. He was five when he started playing with my camera. I went and bought him his own, just a cheap disposable one, you know, and we found something remarkable. Among the pictures of feet and sideways pictures of the sun, there were some stunning pictures on that first camera," Harribel said fondly, holding Rin against her side as she spoke. "That's when I knew that there was something special about how that boy saw the world, and it needed to be shared. I nurtured that in him, we all did, and he never stopped learning about photography. If it was a camera, he learned about it. He learned how to take them apart, how to develop his own films, use the darkroom in ways that amazed me, and now, he's at school on a scholarship for his photography."

Mila Rose nodded. "It was fun, we lived in Australia, you know."

Rin stared openly for a moment. "Australia? But doesn't everything want to kill you there?" he gasped.

The three women laughed for a second. "Shh, not at all," Harribel said, squeezing him. "We lived on the Gold Coast, and we turned everything into learning for him because he didn't quite fit in with the regular school life. There is learning in the most amazing places. Science in the waves, math in the sky, literature on the shoreline."

"Sounds amazing," Hanataro said quietly.

"It was, and we go back every year too," she said. "Here, would you like to see a picture of Wonderweiss?" she asked.

Rin and Hanataro both nodded and Harribel pulled one up on her phone. Rin squinted. "Hey that's that kid I see on roller skates."

"Yes," Harribel said, smiling. "I taught him how to skate. Holding his hand first then tied a rope to him."

"A rope?" Momo said, frowning.

"It worked," Sung Sun said softly from where she sat in the large chair. "Never seen the like, but it worked."

Harribel sighed and they continued telling stories to ease the mind of the three of them until news could be heard.

Outside, Aizen had finally managed to track down Urahara. He'd been literally outside the building with Uryuu Ishida and his roommate Chad.

"Kisuke, you are hard to track down when you turn off your phone," he said, walking up with his hands in his pockets.

Urahara turned around and gave him a coy smile. "Oh, my, my, there's my sweetie. I didn't know you were here or I would have fetched you straight away."

"Yes, I'm sure, I saw they brought Ichigo in, what happened?" he asked.

Uryuu was decidedly pale. "This girl, from the house, she came running over to our place. And said she was going to kill him. Chad and I ran up there, but when we got there…." He swallowed hard. "I've never seen that much blood."

Aizen turned to Urahara with a raised brow. Kisuke sighed, chewing his lip for a moment. "It seems that Yoshi didn't go home when we turned her loose. We had her tailed, of course. She went to some club downtown, and didn't come back out. Our best guess is she used it to drop tail. A couple hours ago, it looks like she went back to the house. We're not sure what exactly happened, but when Uryuu and Chad got there, Mabashi, the CI, was dead, and Ichigo was barely alive, frequently seizing from whatever it was."

"Was it self administered?" Aizen asked, wondering if it was a suicide attempt.

"Not like," Urahara said with a sigh, pointing to his neck. "Injected here with enough force to bruise. Mabashi was shot through and through, chest wound. Died quick. I doubt he really even had time to notice he'd been shot. His body's already down in the morgue. We've got the Crime Scene guys cleaning up the mess and gathering evidence, and in a few hours when they clear out, we'll be allowed to go in and check the rest of the house."

"And the Utagawas?" Aizen asked, frowning. "Do you have them?"

Urahara sighed. "No, Uryuu said he heard a car peel out. Ryo's vehicle is gone, and we've got an APB out on it now."

Aizen sighed, rubbing his head. "I just…who does this kind of stuff?"

"Crazy smart people, Sōsuke. She was crazy like kitsune demon, I'll tell you that. I'll let you know what we find, but we're guessing she left without her blackmail material," he said, sighing. Aizen turned to go. "Sōsuke," he said softly. "I know you're worried about the kid. Just…remember that Mabashi is dead, and was the first person who ever told him he loved him in that place."

Aizen nodded. Could Ichigo have returned the sentiment? Could he have loved Mabashi in return despite all the terrible things that he'd done over the last five years? Aizen, of course, knew that he would. The first and lingering affectionate touch he received. A first experience in sex lays a map for the future, and being brutally raped at thirteen would have tied him to his attacker in a way that was hard to break, especially since that attacker had decided he "loved" him. The navigation of this was going to take all his skills, to say the least.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

A gentle knock came on the door a few moments after Uryuu left the house. Luppi left the distraught girl on the couch and answered it to see Yoshino standing there concerned.

"What's happening?" she asked. "I heard all kinds of noise, and Uryuu's door is opened…" she said, looking in where Nozomi sat on the sofa rocking back and forth while Wonderweiss seemed to be taking in everything silently.

Luppi cleared his throat. "This is Nozomi Utagawa. She came down for help. Uryuu and Chad ran up there to try and help," he said, pulling his robe a bit tighter. "I was just about to get tea for everyone, would you like a cup Yoshino?" he said softly.

"Of coruse, Luppi, of course, might I stay with you?" she asked, nodding at him.

Luppi nodded. "Please, this isn't exactly my area," he said, ducking into the kitchen for the tea.

Yoshino sat down beside Nozomi. "Nozomi, right?" she asked gently.

Nozomi turned her eyes on Yoshino and nodded. "Yeah," she said softly. "She's going to kill him," she whispered. "Noba was so scared…will she hurt them both?"

"Shh, sweetie, tell me what happened?" she asked gently.

Nozomi nodded and set about explaining everything that had happened in the last couple of days, starting with the fight between Mabashi and Yoshi, and ending up with her coming back and screaming at Ichigo and swearing to hurt everyone and everything he cared about.

Yoshino nodded, putting a hand on Nozomi's hand. "If Uryuu and Chad went up there, they'll stop her from hurting anyone else."

A gunshot could be heard through the stillness, surprising everyone in the room. Nozomi started to get up. Yoshino, worried herself, tried to appear not. "Shh, you can't do anything here. We don't know what's happening, for all we know the police are up there." Nozomi seemed to calm, but Yoshio knew better. She'd just now started hearing sirens in the distance. She hoped no one had been hurt, but she knew Yoshi's preference for guns.

Luppi came in with a tray of teacups and a steaming pot and set it on the coffee table. He reached over and turned off the TV and served everyone a cup. Wonderweiss took his and sipped carefully as he listened to everyone speak.

Yoshino saw that Nozomi was not faring well, the teacup rattling on the saucer as she picked it up. "Um, Luppi, why don't you tell Nozomi about how you found out about your condition?" She knew that Luppi, fascinated with psychology as he was, always enjoyed discussing with others his unusual mental disorder.

"Sure, that will pass some time while we wait to hear from Uryuu," he said, sitting his teacup down. "Well, I have cyclothymia. The first time I had anything happen, I was in middle school. I just didn't sleep and just kept doing stuff. It was so bad that they called in my mom because they thought I was on something. I'd done an extra credit project that should have taken a week in a night, and was zipping through work at school. They took me to get a drug test, because no one believed me. When it came back clean, the doctor said that he thought it might be something else, but he wasn't sure what, and sent me home," he said, sipping his tea in thought. "Then, a few days later, I was fine again. My parents thought everything was over and it was just something strange, but I hit this serious low, like so bad I couldn't' get out of bed, and just stopped doing anything. My mom decided to call a psychiatrist and took me and finally got an answer. A bipolar type thing called cyclothymia. A bunch of pills later, they got things straight. Now I just take a mood stabilizer, but tonight I was a little wound up so that's why I was up."

Nozomi nodded, sipping her tea without shaking now. Wonderweiss picked up a tablet from beside his seat on the loveseat and began tapping on it.

A smooth female voice spoke from his tablet. "Are you better?"

Nozomi jumped, not expecting that. "Um, yes, thanks…" she said to Wonderweiss who nodded and tapped on the tablet again.

"That is good," the female voice answered.

"Wonderweiss is autistic and nonverbal, Nozomi," Yoshino said with a smile. "He prefers the female voice because it doesn't sound like a robot," she said, quietly.

Nozomi nodded slowly and smiled at him as she sipped her tea again. They continued to talk about various things until the sun started to rise outside.

Yoshino's cell phone rang a jaunty melody. She smiled and grabbed it from her pocket. "That's Uryuu," she said, answering it quickly.

"Yoshino, sorry to wake you," he said apologetically.

"I'm actually downstairs at Luppi and Wonderweiss's with Nozomi," she said softly. "What's going on?"

Uryuu cleared his throat. "We got there too late, the one guy, with orangey hair like Ichigo, he was dead, Yoshi'd shot him through the chest. Ichigo'd been shot up with some drug and was seizing bad. The ambulance took him not long after we got there because someone called emergency and the call dropped. He's out of danger for the moment, and we're waiting for the tox screen to know for sure, but they think it was cocaine, possibly crack because of the strength, and heroin she injected him with. It was enough to kill him, just not immediately. Without treatment, he wouldn't have lived more than an hour or two. He's still out, and they don't know how long he'll be out. Can you lock our place? I'm staying here, my dad's on Ichigo's case, and I don't want to leave him."

Yoshino nodded. "Of course, just take care of yourself, okay?" she said and hung up.

"Ichigo is alive," she said, and got three relieved faces. "Someone else, with orangey hair, Uryuu said, was shot and killed."

"Mabashi," Nozomi said softly. "He probably tried to defend Ichigo. What did she do to him?"

"They think she gave him an overdose of some sort, but they don't know what yet. He's unconscious, but alive," she said, encouragingly.

"Can you take me there? I want to see him. And what about Noba? And the others?" she asked.

Yoshino smiled. "Come on, we'll go to the hospital and see what's happening with everyone."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Urahara looked up, shielding his eyes as the sun was rising over the horizon. It had been a long night. He'd just got the okay to start searching the rest of the house. They had evidence they needed to find. He stretched and glanced back to see the others on his task force, Edrad, Isane, Kensei, and Sajin gathering together after they exited their cars. He waved at them and they all gathered around him.

"Alright, the team has cleared the murder scene. The rest of the house has _not_ been cleared. We know this was used as a drug den, so there may be people throughout the house. No one came out when the foot patrol went in and did a cursory check for the team but we didn't want them going up or downstairs. We want those areas intact when we get there. Now, Kensei, I want you to take north side, I'll take east, Isane, I want you to head to the basement, Sajin, south, and Edrad, west. First clear the bottom floor, check everywhere someone or something might hide. We're looking for her blackmail cache," he said, looking at them. "Alright, let's get to it, weapons ready at all times," he said, pulling his own pistol and going in.

Everyone spread out, finding the lower level relatively empty. Isane headed down the basement stairs, cautiously turning on the light as she went.

"Police!" she called. "If there's someone down here, please come out! We'd like to get you to a safe place!" she called. She snapped her head to the side when she heard movement. "I won't hurt you. Ichigo is at the hospital with Ririn and the others."

"And Nozomi?" came a soft voice from the shadows directly behind Isane.

She jumped and turned around to find a young man with a scarf covering his mouth and lower jaw. She holstered her gun. "I don't know yet, but we can find out. Let's get you the hospital with the others. Are you the only one here?"

He nodded. "I sent Nozomi out," he said, pointing the tiny basement window.

Isane nodded. "Here, I'll stay with you," she said, leading him up the stairs and out to the ambulance they'd brought. She sat down on the back while the paramedics checked him over. She pressed her com. "One adolescent to teen male."

Inside, Urahara headed into the bathroom and found it empty, then opened the door to the joining bedroom. He flicked on the light and heard several moans of displeasure and saw at least three mostly naked young women piled together on a bed. He pressed the com unit. "Got three females," he said into it. He headed into the room and kept his gun ready.

"Ladies?" he asked.

"Oh, go away, I'm still sleeping it off," murmured one with dark hair. Haineko couldn't remember much about the night before. Just that she needed one hell of a hit to get to sleep.

One with black pigtails and and bright yellow shirt and nothing else sat up and blinked at him.

"Who the fuck you?" she said, bleary eyes trying to follow Urahara. Suzumebachi couldn't remember anything from the day before at all, not even how she got there. "Bitch laced my blow, I think," she muttered, shaking her head.

The other girl, a darker skinned girl with dark hair rolled over, making the track marks in her inner arm very apparent. "Too early," she muttered. Jackie Tristan was no stranger to waking up feeling like death warmed over. She was not used to people she hadn't slept with waking her up, though.

"Um, the Utagawas are gone, and you're going to have to come with us. Do you have some clothes here?" he asked, looking around.

The one with the yellow shirt stood up suddenly, nearly falling. "Yeah," she said, grabbing a black skirt and sliding it on her narrow hips. The one with short brown hair grabbed a discarded dress from under her head and slid it on while the darker skinned girl sat up and fumbled with a pair of pants and a thin t-shirt. Urahara led them downstairs and out to the ambulance without any other incident. He saw Isane sitting in her truck with a young man wrapped in one of the orange blankets watching the sunrise.

"Got one middle age male," came Kensei's voice.

The bespectacled and awkward looking Ugaki had fallen asleep in a closet and was now nervously chatting with Kensei as he was led out of the house. A few minutes later, Edrad came down with a couple more males, one very young with dark hair and another darker skinned man. Finally, Sajin came down with the all clear having made a final sweep of the house. However, in his hands he had a lockbox.

Urahara's eyes lit up. "Well, wonder what's in there," he said, seeing the amused look on Sajin's face. Edrad smiled, pulling a lockpick set from his pocket and going to work on the lock. A few second the box popped open to reveal about fifty flash drives.

"What do you want to bet this is her blackmail material?" Urahara said, smiling. "Where was it?"

Sajin smirked. "The nicest and biggest bedroom, sewn into the mattress."

Urahara nodded, shutting the box and seeing the ambulance and a couple squad cars taking off with the people from the house. "Let's get this back and see what we have."

A few hours later, a memo went out through Karakura Police department and on the morning news. Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa were people of interest and wanted. Anyone with information should come forward immediately to avoid prosecution. Those that came forward with testinmony would find themselves given some degree of amnesty for whatever incriminating evidence Yoshi Utagawa had on them. It was a one-time offer, though, and anyone who didn't take it would be prosecuted.

It was no surprise that within hours, Urahara had several officers and upstanding citizens sitting in his office.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"He dead?" Ho said, staring at the body on their lawn.

The night before Ho and Ban had not been feeling well. Koga had given them some Nyquil and they'd finally gotten to sleep. Now, almost at nine in the morning, they'd wandered outside to find someone on the lawn. It wasn't the first time, but this one really looked dead.

Ban picked up a stick and poked him a couple times. "He might be dead."

Koga had gone in to call the police to come pick whoever it was up and came back out and shook his head as Ban continued to poke the person. He could see he was just passed out cold.

Suddenly he gasped and sat up, surprising both Ho and Ban into running behind Koga. He snorted. He knew who it was.

"Muramasa, why are you passed out on my lawn?" he asked, sighing.

He turned and shook his head. "Bad trip," he muttered before passing out again.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen sat in the hospital room with Ichigo. It was almost five in the evening, and so far, there was no sign of him waking up. The others had all been brought in to the hospital at last, along with some of the other drug users from the house. Facts were coming out at a rapid pace about what had been happening in the house. In his hand he gripped a flash drive with the name Mabashi etched into the plastic. Urahara had retrieved forty six flash drives like this one, each one etched with the name of who she had blackmail material on. He looked up as Ryuken Ishida came into the room.

"Professor," he said, looking and him and nodding. "Any change?" he asked.

"Not yet," Aizen said, glancing back at the bed. "What do you think his chances are?"

Ryuken sighed, running a hand over his white head. "I can't say. He had at least five seizures from the time the ambulance got him and we don't know how many before he was put into the ambulance. His heart is incredibly strong, though, because he managed to avoid full cardiac arrest. We think he suffered a minor stroke, though. He's scheduled for more tests tomorrow to confirm. The tox screen came back," he said, sighing. "He had one of the nastiest speedballs I've ever had come in here. I worked ER for a time, and had a few. This was straight crack cocaine and very pure heroin. By all rights, he should be dead. He'll be here a week at least once he wakes up. And we're not sure when that will be."

He nodded. "And the other kids?"

"We've medically released all of them into police custody. It's up to your friend Captain Urahara what happens from there. I understand that they've been moved to a safe location for the time being since Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa are still at large. I've scheduled the three with serious problems to come back in the next week or two to have reconstructive surgery on various things. Ichigo's arm will have to have surgery. It was a bad ulna break that healed wrong, and then it was broken again last night. It is going to take pins to stabilize," he said, softly. "Urahara has given a release for us to talk to you about the case, in case you weren't aware."

Aizen nodded. "Before I was a teacher, I was a rape counselor for a couple years."

Ryuken nodded. "Very well, I'll leave you then. Let us know if he wakes up, we need to check him immediately if he does."

Aizen nodded, watching him leave then glancing to the unmoving form on the bed next to him. The reassuring beep of the heart monitor and the constant drone of the oxygen machine did little to ease Aizen's nerves, or his mind. He sighed.

"I'm supposed to be your counselor," he said softly to the still form beside him. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do that. I'm too close to you. Just being your teacher alone should mean I can't do this. I know I shouldn't be in here with you. I can't bring myself to leave, though. Isn't that strange?" he said, smirking as he leaned back in the chair. "He I am, a twenty six year old college professor and past private psychologist and rape counselor, and I've done what you're never supposed to do in either line of work."

Aizen sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose and pushing the curl of his brunette hair out of his eyes for the millionth time. "I always have the worst luck. When I met Byakuya, we were doomed to fail. He had to marry and produce an heir to make his grandfather happy. When I met Urahara, we spent so much time together, and then he ends up realizing he always had been in love with his high school sweetheart and they run off and get married. Story of my love life," he said, sighing.

He fiddled with the flash drive. "I watched this drive, and some of the others, just to see what had gone on in that house," he said quietly. "What they did to you and the others…I don't know how you endured it. And the drugs, how could something that toxic have survived her without people knowing? Well I guess they knew, they just were blackmailed into silence," he said softly.

He glanced over at the bed and watched the monitor. "And here I am, infatuated by a young man that will probably never recover completely from this," he said, tapping the flash drive on his leg. "You're never going to trust someone. You're going to hate anyone that tries to help you and tries to tell you that Mabashi never loved you, even at the end; everything he did was self-serving. I guess he died a hero, in a way, standing up for someone, but it doesn't excuse the things he did."

"Mabashi's dead," a flat sounding voice said from beside Aizen and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

He turned and saw a pair of brown eyes staring at him from the bed. "Ichigo," he said, smiling. "I have to get your doctor," Aizen said and jumped up, leaving him to go to the door.

Ichigo watched him, having heard everything he'd said from the time the doctor had come in the room. What did he mean? What did he want from him? He was too tired to care as a silver haired doctor came in and started shining light in his eyes and asking him questions.


	9. Chaos Unwinding

Chapter Nine

Chaos Unwinding

Aizen wasn't sure a couple days later when he was summoned by Urahara to a meeting at the hospital. He'd been stopping by every day after classes were done to check on everyone, but had found most of those from the Utagawa house to be reluctant to talk about anything yet. Aizen knew that this had to do with their placement, because after all, only Ichigo was eighteen. The rest needed to be placed with families as soon as possible. Ririn and Noba were both rooming with Ichigo at the moment, while everyone else shared another room. Ririn had to have a surgery to fix a badly healed femur break, and Noba's jaw had required a bit of reconstructive surgery. Both would remain in the hospital for at least a week or more until they could be released.

Aizen nodded to Urahara and sat down at the end of the table while they waited for the rest to arrive, silently hoping Urahara would decide not to come strike up conversation. Aizen was decidedly not in the mood to deal with his strange behavior.

"Sōsuke…" came Urahara's soft voice behind him before he came around and hopped onto the table to sit in front of him. Aizen sighed and stared at him, his light eyes flickering with mischief, like usual, and his blond hair ever hanging in his face.

"Kisuke, I don't think this is the time…" he said, rolling his eyes at the coy man.

"Oh come on, Sōsuke, it's been years. You can at least act like you're happy to see me. I mean, it wasn't like you broke my heart or anything," he said, shrugging at him.

Aizen sighed. "You left me for a woman, Kisuke. How do you want me to act about it."

Urahara grinned again. "Ah, you still pine for me?"

"Not in the least," he said, watching as Toshiro and his grandmother came and sat down near him.

"But Sōsuke, you act like you got hurt, I was your rebound boyfriend, remember?" Urahara said, giving him a half smile.

Aizen was about to say something then sighed. "Yes, I know, I wasn't very good at knowing what having a relationship broken off like that meant."

Both men realized they were being watched by those that came in the room, Aizen getting uncomfortable, Urahara reveling in the attention.

"Eh hem," came Isane's voice from the front. "Captain Urahara, if you could stop flirting with your ex, and come to the front so we can get going."

Urahara turned and mock glared at her. "Isane, you are no fun."

"I'll tell your wife if you don't cut it out, sir," she said, smirking at him.

"Ah, well, I suppose I should behave," he said, sliding off the table and going up front as everyone sat and watched him. He turned and clapped loudly getting everyone to start in their seats. "Well as fun as picking on Sōsuke is, I've got more important topics today."

Aizen glared at him. Urahara winked as Isane and the rest of his team sat down in the seats at the head. Harribel, the Ishidas and Yoshino had be invited to the meeting as well.

"As you know, this entire situation is rather precarious. I'm sure you can understand. I have a list of law enforcement, child services, adoption lawyers and agents, and more as long as my arm that were involved with the incidents at the Utagawa household. All of those present, with the addition of Ms. Harribel's consorts, have been directly involved with the children of that household, and as such there are several things we need to talk about. The first topic is perhaps the procedures that we are using to handle these children, all of which are in a very sensitive place right now." Urahara pulled down a projector screen and placed a phone with projector attachment on the table and brought up the photos from the interior of the household.

"Our first priority is the safety of all these kids. Before anything else, that has to be priority. For that reason, they have twenty four hour protections in place here in the hospital, currently by the five of us on the team. We're currently vetting a secondary team. Now, because of the fact that Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa are on the run, and we have been unable to locate Inaba, their drug supplier among other things, we feel that all of them are in danger," he explained. "The second thing is we have some hard choices, and that's what you have been invited here for. You've all been involved in their lives recently or in the past and are the first choice in our minds to help them. We need to figure out where these kids are going. Normally, they would be processed through the system, but currently, with this list of corruption, we don't trust the system to be fair. Therefore, I'm directly looking for those that wish to take them in and care for them."

No one spoke for a long moment and then Harribel spoke up. "I would like to ask to take in Rin and Hanataro, the youngest ones. My consorts and I have had experience raising a child with nonverbal autism. I believe that handling the trauma and abuse the two boys endured would be within our capabilities."

Toshiro started to speak but his grandmother spoke up. "Consorts?" she asked, looking confused.

Harribel nodded. "My three female significant others. We live in a polyamorous unit together."

Toshiro's grandmother quirked an eyebrow and Toshiro spoke up. "Momo should come live with us. Grandmother and I already discussed it."

Urahara nodded. "Yoshino, I understand that you developed a rapport with Nozomi and have been to visit her since you brought her in the other day. She has been resistant to speaking to anyone else. I know that you currently own and run the fourplex you live in, but if you would consider…"

Yoshino smiled, glancing at Uryuu fondly. "I would be honored to take the child in if she is agreeable."

"Nozomi is one of the ones in the household that endured further trauma than the three youngest," Isane said looking at her. "You will have to work closely with therapists and doctors. She also will require some minor surgeries to repair some cosmetic scarring."

Yoshino nodded. "I understand."

"What about the two that are still in the hospital?" Aizen asked. "Noba and Ririn?"

Urahara nodded. "We've yet to decide upon a suitable placement yet, but we have more time with them. The other four will be released today from the hospital. They sustained minimal injuries and have only been here for the seventy two hours for the psych observation. With that said, if you are going to take on these responsibilities, if you would go with Isane, she'll start getting paperwork in order for everyone," he said standing and bowing slightly before he left. Isane smiled and took the others to a separate area to get things together. Aizen jumped up and followed Urahara, stopping him in the hall before he could leave.

"Kisuke, where are you off to so fast?" he asked, confused by his hurry.

Urahara patted his hand gently. "I have to go finish the interview with Isshin Kurosaki."

Aizen nodded, letting him leave. He headed down to the room where Ichigo was sleeping and Ririn and Noba sat together on Noba's bed reading together. He took up his usual seat by the door.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Urahara headed back to the makeshift station they'd set up. Because of the various corrupt officers, they'd had to set up a base outside the influence of any of the actual law enforcement offices.

He went in to the custody room where Isshin Kurosaki had been put after he showed up at the hospital wanting to see his son. Of course, the nurses had summoned Urahara immediately and he told Isshin that he had to come with him first. He smiled at the now cleaned up, and mostly clean shaven, man. He looked less like a criminal now with a sparse, neat beard on his chin. He looked up from fiddling with his shirt cuffs.

"Captain," he said, nodding.

Urahara sat down across from him. "Okay, Isshin. Give me everything that's happened and we'll see where we go from here." He reached over and turned on the in room recorder in the middle of the table.

Isshin nodded and launched into a three hour tale of Inaba, his involvement there, and the death of his wife, and what had happened to his daughters. He then told him of tailing Inaba constantly, doing trade in undergrounds and back alleys for information on the slimy man. He explained how he ended up tailing him all the way to Karakura and what he witnessed at the house and realized that his son was not safe after all.

Urahara nodded. "And you say you have the documents where this guy switched him with the other kid that died?"

Isshin nodded. "I have it all in a bus station locker," he said, reaching in his pocket and handing Urahara the key. He took it and thanked him.

"When can I see Ichigo?" he asked.

"That's up to him. I've contacted Kaien Shiba, and he and his wife are on their way from Tokyo with the girls. What happens will depend on them as well as you," he said nodding and heading out.

Urahara left the man, knowing he was wracked with guilt over leaving his son to this sort of thing. He found the documents right where Isshin said they'd be, and took them to the hospital to compare them with Ryuken Ishida's files. Everything matched up. Ichigo Choi died the night Ichigo Kurosaki was brought in. Some of the original records listed Ichigo Choi as having black hair, which was scratched out and replaced with red. Everything seemed to be in order. Ichigo Kurosaki was technically never adopted by the Utagawas. He wasn't sure how Ichigo would feel about that, but it was as it was. The records were put in the process of being corrected.

He glanced at the clock as it was just after six. He should get the statements he needed from Ichigo today. The sooner, the better. They'd already picked up several of those on the videos, but he wasn't sure the extent of their involvement. He put away the medical files into his case and removed the folder with the mugshots. Might as well do this now, he thought and headed to Ichigo's room.

He knocked lightly and heard the muttered response within. He opened the door and saw Ichigo watching TV with a somewhat vacant expression while Aizen, who had agreed to help with keeping an eye on the kids until they vetted personnel fully, sat in a chair near the door. Both Ririn and Noba were asleep in their beds. Considering after their surgeries, both were on pain killers, it was no surprise.

"Ichigo, do you remember me?" he asked as he came in quietly.

Ichigo turned to him. "Yeah, Captain Urahara, right? You were the team that went in to the house and helped Noba and Nozomi."

Aizen watched Urahara carefully, and Urahara could feel Aizen's eyes on him. He looked over. "Sōsuke, if you're going to stare that hard, come sit by me, honey," he said with a sigh, slanting eyes at him. "Quite hard to flirt and make you uncomfortable from here."

Ichigo quirked a tiny smile at him and attempted to covertly watch Aizen come sit on the opposite side of the bed from Urahara. Urahara leaned over with a grin.

"I know Sōsuke's your teacher, but he wasn't always this dour. He was quite a wild thing back in our college days," Urahara said, giving Aizen a look that dared him to disagree. Aizen snorted and looked away.

"He was wild? Like…with sex?" Ichigo finally said, looking at Urahara. Aizen groaned and put his face in his hands.

"Oh my gods, yes, there was this one time, we went out to this dance club, and there was this little femme boy minx that kept coming up and grinding his ass into Sōsuke's crotch, and I swear…"

"Oh no, you aren't going to tell that one!" Aizen said, sitting up. "He does not need to hear about that."

Urahara broke into a grin. "And I swear, before the night was over, Sōsuke had had that boy six times on the dance floor, and disappeared into the bathroom with him at least six more times."

"I did not! And it was twice we went to the bathroom," he said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.

"He used to carry about six condoms when we went out," Urahara said, grinning. "The man was insatiable." Ichigo giggled, and Aizen, despite his frown, knew that Urahara was using Ichigo's curiosity to get him more comfortable talking to him. Aizen thought it was quite telling that Ichigo would immediately want information about sex when the world "wild" was used. He knew there would be a lot about this that they had to deal with.

"I've got tons of stories about him, but you mind if we take care of some of my paperwork before I tell you all about the time we went out to a party and it turned into everyone skinny-dipping in the ocean at three am?" Urahara said with a grin.

Ichigo smiled for the first time. "Okay, I want to hear that one."

Aizen sighed again. Urahara pulled out the file of mugshots. "Okay, so I've got a bunch of people we arrested. I need some statements from you to confirm both their claims, and the evidence we have. I've talked to the others, and I just need to talk to you three. I'll come back tomorrow to talk to Ririn and Noba."

Ichigo nodded. "Okay," he said, taking the file. "So you want to know what they did when they came to the house?"

"That's it," Urahara said, sitting a recorder beside him. "And I'll record it so we don't have to do this again later in the courtroom." He leaned forward and spoke clearly. "Statement by Ichigo Utagawa, pending, Ichigo Kurosaki. Okay, Ichigo, just tell me what you knew them as, name wise, and what you remember about them."

Ichigo nodded, picking up the first one. "That's Ryo. Ryo never fucked anyone." Aizen flinched at the tone of his voice. It was flat, almost clinical and distant. That didn't bode well. He glanced at Urahara, and he saw that he knew the same thing.

Ichigo handed him Ryo's picture. "Ryo said he couldn't get it up when he got high. Yoshi bitched that he was worthless because of that. He'd blow opium smoke in my face and watch though, especially when Mabashi was around." He paused, his voice cracking slightly when he said Mabashi's name. "He did beat me when I was little and wouldn't smoke it myself, though. I remember that. He said that I better get used to the stuff because I'd be miserable if I wasn't high. He was right, of course. But I wouldn't do it. The worst was crack smoke. The opium and pot wasn't bad, crack smoke gave me such a headache," he said, staring blankly at the wall before looking down at Yoshi's picture.

"Yoshi kind of controlled the place. It was more her place than Ryo's. Ryo was always high. She liked guns too. I only saw her shoot someone once, though, that kid, Cain was his name I think. I just remember seeing them dragging his body out to bury it. Mabashi said if I said anything I'd regret it. She shot cats that came up too. She hated cats," he said, handing the picture over to him. "She'd touch us sometimes," he said, frowning. "It was weird, like she'd just suddenly get all soft and then, her eyes would change, and she'd slap the shit out of us, and if we were lucky she didn't pistol whip us in the process. She hated us, but she would tell us she loved us. It was very confusing."

Urahara took Yoshi's picture. "Was she the one that introduced you to Mabashi?" he asked.

A ghost of a pained expression crossed Ichigo's face. "Um, yeah, he was selling drugs for her. I came home from school one day and he was paying her for what he was selling up at the college and he just reached out and grabbed me, yanking me in the kitchen and asked Yoshi who I was. She said I was one of her brats, why, did he want a piece?" Ichigo stopped, his eyes dilating as he remembered. "He just grinned at her, then shoved me away. I went back down into the basement, but I know what happened up there. The next day she came and got me and said I had some work to do for her." He shook his head and picked up the next photo.

"Ugaki liked heroine and to smoke pot. He liked to watch, though, didn't matter who. He'd stand in the corner of the room and watch anyone fucking. Then he'd disappear into the bathroom and jack off. Weird guy." Ichigo picked up the next one. "Jacks, I don't know her real name," he said, looking at Jackie Tristan's photo. "She was strung out on heroine, came and had sex with anyone who'd buy her a fix." He picked up Suzemabachi's photo. "Same with Suzy. She was on either snorting or shooting coke." He picked up Sawatari's picture. "He was a decent guy to us. He had pain, and his doctor wouldn't give him pills. That's why I asked him to take Ririn away."

He picked up the next and looked at it. "Kugo, I think," he said. "He was rough, really rough, but he only likes the ones under fifteen. He didn't come around after Rin and Hanataro got there so that was good, but he'd taken turns with the rest of us." He set it aside. "Muramasa, he sometimes slept with one of the girls, but mostly he just got high off the opium and pot. Same with this one, Wabisuke, I think they called him. Um, this is one of the cops, isn't it? I remember him. He liked Noba… Nirgge? I think," he said, putting the photo of one of the vice cops, Nirgge Parudoc down. "And this guy, Choe, another cop, right?" he said and Urahara nodded. "He liked Ririn…" he said, putting Choe Neng Poww, one of the drug strike team's members. "Moe? I think. He slept with the girls and then bought their drug of choice…" He picked up the picture of the last girl they'd picked up. "Haineko was always there. I don't know if she ever left, really, she'd be passed out in the bathroom or the kitchen; a few times she wandered down to the basement and curled up in our beds. She was always nice to us." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "And um, these look familiar, but I don't know them well," he said, shuffling through a few more. He stopped at Inaba's photo and stared at it. "He…he's the one that broke my arm. He said he killed my mother…" he said quietly. "He said he killed me too. I don't know how I know, but he shot me and her that night…"

Urahara nodded, taking the photos. "That's enough Ichigo. Is there anything you want to tell me that would help out? That will help put these people away for hurting you and the others? We've already got them under a slew of rape and assault charges."

Ichigo looked at him. "I don't know. It wasn't like I ever said no to any of them. So you can't really charge them with rape on my account. I let it happen, Captain. I could have left, especially when I was eighteen, I didn't leave."

Urahara blinked, glancing at Aizen. "Ichigo, you didn't consent to anything that happened there."

"Of course I did. I could have run away at any time," he said, looking at him seriously. "I stayed to take care of the others."

"That doesn't mean you consented…" Urahara started.

"I didn't say no to anyone, so stop saying that I never consented! I walked into bedrooms and let them fuck me, okay? Totally my own choice, alright?" he said, glaring at Urahara now. Aizen saw that Ichigo's face was flushing bright red and his heartrate had jumped significantly. "So stop this rape talk. That never happened to me, the others were hurt like that, I wasn't."

Urahara picked up the recorder slowly. "Okay, Ichigo, okay," he said. "Can I postpone that skinny dipping story until tomorrow? I need to get a few things done yet."

Ichigo's face shifted into a grin. "Yeah, but you have to tell me, okay?" he said.

Aizen glanced at Urahara worriedly. "Okay, you just rest up, okay?" he said, smiling and left.

Aizen smiled, patting his leg under the sheet. "I have to head home too, okay? So we'll talk tomorrow."

Ichigo nodded, laying back and clicking through the channels in silence as Aizen left the room to stand in the hallway for a long time before he headed down the hall.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Isshin finally convinced Urahara to let him go to the hospital to see Ichigo the next day. Kensei took him up to Ichigo's room and saw that Aizen was already there for the afternoon. He nodded to Aizen and went ahead and left.

Isshin stood inside the door and looked at his son. _His son_. He swallowed hard and walked toward his bed.

"Ichigo," he said softly, getting his attention.

Ichigo turned and looked at this man, he remembered him from the house, he'd been there the night Inaba had come around the first time. He frowned. "Yeah?"

"Don't you remember me?" Isshin said softly, chewing on his bottom lip nervously. Both Ririn and Noba were watching intently.

"You were there the night Inaba came by, why?" he said, staring at him because in the back of his brain something was tickling in his memories.

"I'm…I'm your father, Ichigo. Your real father…" he said slowly.

Ichigo stared for a minute. "What?"

Isshin swallowed. "Your mother, Masaki, was killed the night you were shot, Ichigo. I…I didn't know what to do. Inaba was after me, because I was turning him in to the police for what he was doing. He said he'd kill everything I loved, and…and he went after you and your mother. I didn't know what to do, I took your sisters to my cousin, Kaien, and I told him to pick you up at the hospital and I disappeared, I faked my death, and went after him because I thought if Kaien adopted you three, he wouldn't be able to find you, but something happened, and you didn't go to Kaien. I thought you with Kaien, all this time, I thought you were all three with him and his wife and happy…I had no idea… At the hospital, Inaba, he went there, and he tried to make this doctor kill you, to make sure you were dead after he shot you. But the doctor, he…he couldn't do it so he switched your records with a kid that died that night. And Inaba left because he thought you and your mother died, and he couldn't find your sisters. So he left, and I went after him, and all this time I've been trying to bring him down…"

Ichigo stared at him like he was a complete stranger for a long time in silence. Slowly, the memories that he hadn't let himself think about began to surface. Playing ring around the rosie with his baby sisters and his mom by the river while their pop laughed when they fell. His mom giggling and catching him as he ran into her arms. Pop picking him up and swinging him up into the air. "You're my little protector aren't you, Ichigo?" his voice echoing in his head. Crying after he lost a karate match and then his mom hugging the tears away. Laughing. Happiness. Crack. Ichigo blinked, the world in his mind drowning in red. "Mommy!"

Ichigo jerked as Isshin tried to put his hand on his shoulder. He shook his head. "I don't know you, not anymore…" he said and pulled the covers over him and looked away from him.

Isshin jerked his hand back and stared at his back for a long time, unsure of what to do or say. He turned to leave and heard the girl in the other bed speak.

"You left and never checked on him? You just left and never made sure he was safe?" she said, glaring at him. "How could you not even call someone! It was nine years. Nine years, and you just let him go on being beaten up and hurt and…"

Noba, his jaw wired shut still, couldn't speak, but held his whiteboard in front of him. "Leave him alone."

Isshin nodded. "Yeah, okay," he said, turning and heading out the door.

Aizen got up and followed him, stopping him in the hall. Isshin turned and looked at him. "What?" he asked, expecting Aizen to berate him as well.

"Isshin, right?" Aizen said softly.

Isshin nodded. "Look, you have to give him time. He's locked away the past he had with you and his mother because it hurt to think of being happy when he was hurting so much, and not just from losing you both." Isshin looked at him and nodded, tears falling unabashed down his cheeks now. "You left to protect your children, and you had no idea the extent of Inaba's cruelty. He will be caught and pay for his crimes."

Isshin nodded. "Yeah, thanks," he said, and headed to the elevator to have Kensei take him back to the office. He stopped by the payphone on the wall, though. Maybe he could do something, it wasn't a lot, but perhaps…

He turned and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?" came the familiar voice on the other end.

"Giriko, I need to call in that favor," he said softly, swallowing against the rising bile.

Giriko snorted. "Okay, hopefully it is in my interest as well."

"I'm sure it will net you a nice bounty, Giriko. Three people, all on the run from the police. They hurt my boy, Giriko. They need to pay," Isshin said, watching as nurses worked in the hallways, passing in and out of his field of vision.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Karakura Town," Isshin answered.

"Names?" he asked, and Isshin knew he was writing.

"Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa, and Kagerōza Inaba. All are in the area still from what the police know. Captain Kisuke Urahara is lead on the case. Talk to no other police in the area," he said.

"Wasn't Inaba your quarry?" he asked.

"I don't care anymore, he has to be caught and pay for what he's done to my son," he said, tears already falling again, and he knew he was going to lose it before long if he wasn't careful.

"I'll bring Yukio and Riruka. Sounds like a three man job. Sit tight. How do I find you?" he asked.

"Captain Urahara will know where I am," he said and hung up the phone.

Isshin turned and leaned on the wall, letting his tears go as he hid his face from the world. Kaien would be there the next day, as there had been a delay. He didn't deserve his children. He'd ask Kaien to keep Karin and Yuzu as his own, and he'd fade away, he deserved no more than that.


	10. Entrenched Chaos

Chapter Ten

Entrenched Chaos

"I need to release him," Ryuken said, turning to Aizen outside the room. "He's been here two weeks, and there's no reason I can keep him in the hospital any longer."

Aizen nodded. "Where's he going to go?"

Ryuken shook his head. "I have no idea. He's an adult; I can't tell him where to go."

"His father is still here, he's in a hotel down the street with his cousin and his daughters. Uryū would no doubt take him into his home, or if he would stay with you, if you would offer since he is your nephew. However, I don't know that he will agree to any of those considering that he doesn't know who you are yet," Aizen said, looking at him sadly.

"Well, I suppose asking the boy would be the answer," Ryuken said, heading into the room where Ichigo rested.

Inside, Ichigo was talking with Urahara again. Aizen groaned because he knew what they were talking about.

"So, here I am, naked as the day I was born, pinned against a rock with Sōsuke practically naked and pinned against my back. Our foray into the lake to skinny dip and make out had gone horribly, horribly wrong," Urahara was saying as they walked up.

"The only reason we got into that was because Byakuya was being a jealous prick, and didn't fill the jetski with fuel like he was supposed to," Aizen said as he came in and sat down beside Ichigo.

"'Kuya was pretty jealous even though he's the one that broke it off with you," Urahara said, thoughtfully.

Ichigo looked between them. "Byakuya? You mean like Byakuya Kuchiki?"

Aizen nodded. "Yes, we had a dalliance when we were in school. But he had to marry for the sake of appearances for his family. After he broke up with me, he felt bad, so he would let me use some of his facilities that his family own. However, he had some very interesting ways to show he wasn't happy when I started dating Kisuke."

Urahara glanced over to see Ryuken. "Well, that's enough tale telling for today, I think I've embarrassed Sōsuke enough for one day and he wasn't even here."

"Wait, you have to tell me how you got out of that mess?" Ichigo said, frowning as Urahara stood.

"Oh, well, we weren't there alone, like I said, and when we didn't come back, our friends went looking and found us in that compromising position. One of them managed to dislodge the rock that had fallen against Sōsuke's back and pinned us to the others. Next time I want to make out on a lake, I'm going to make sure the sand bad doesn't have loose rocks near it…" he said with a smirk and headed out of the room.

Ryuken shook his head as he left. "Ichigo, we have come to the point that I have to release you."

Ichigo grinned. "Good, hospital food sucks!" he said, sighing.

"But we have to put you somewhere where you'll be safe and monitored because Ryo and Yoshi haven't been captured yet, or Inaba," Ryuken went on.

Ichigo's face fell. "Yeah, I don't…I don't have a home anymore…" he said, glancing up at them.

Aizen nodded. "You have options, Ichigo. Dr. Ishida, of course, is your uncle. And your father is still here and hasn't been charged with anything. You have your cousin Uryuu as well. Or there's the option of staying with one of the families that took in your siblings…"

Ichigo shook his head. "I don't know them, none of them, and I don't want to impose on the other families, they're doing so much by taking care of the others," he said quietly, examining the edge of the blanket thoughtfully.

Ryuken sighed. "You'll have to go somewhere, and unless you can come up with something else, Captain Urahara will put you in a police safe house until everything is over with."

"I don't want to go to a safe house," he said emphatically.

"You could stay with me," Aizen said almost too quietly.

Ichigo turned to him and frowned. "What?"

Ryuken glared at him. "I mean, if you want, I have a nice two bedroom apartment, and it's just me alone there. And I could make sure you get to your classes each day. I wouldn't be able to be your psychologist anymore, but I have a colleague that would be willing to take my place and come to the apartment and work with you directly. It might be for the best that he work with you, as I'm technically breaking a few ethical standards by counseling someone in my classes," Aizen said, looking over at Ryuken, who had relaxed his glare.

"You can stay for a few days, or more, and figure out everything. If you want," Aizen said, looking at Ichigo carefully.

Ichigo's face remained neutral for a while as he thought. Slowly, he nodded. "Okay, that sounds good. If you don't mind," he said, looking at him. "Then I'll go find my own place once this is over with."

Aizen smiled. "Very well, I'll set things up; I'll come back and pick you up around four after the doctors have finished discharging you.

Aizen headed out to pick up a few things for his new houseguest. A couple hours later, he dropped five shopping bags on the bed in the spare room. He'd bought everything he could think that Ichigo might need. He had his own bathroom, so Aizen had picked up all personal care items he might need. He honestly didn't know what he'd use so he got an assortment of things from hair gel, body washes, toothpaste, and lotions.

He took a few minutes and hung up a few clothes that he'd picked up based on the size Uryuu had given him. Considering Uryuu was about the same size and had an eye for clothing, he was sure he would have been pretty close to correct on Ichigo's size. He'd also picked up a variety of snack foods and quick to prepare items. He had no idea what Ichigo liked, but he wanted to give him a variety. He glanced at the clock. Only two o'clock. He sighed and slid into his chair to wait the next couple of hours out.

Four came quickly for Ichigo and he was dressed in a set of scrubs the nurses gave him as he got together with the prescription antibiotics he was still on and hi potency vitamins he'd been given. Aizen showed up right on time and then they were off to his apartment. Ichigo found the place to be huge and when Aizen showed him his room and what he'd gotten for him, Ichigo couldn't believe it.

"I can't…I can't pay for this stuff," he said, turning to stare at Aizen seriously.

Aizen shook his head. "You don't have to pay for anything, Ichigo. I invited you, and I'll make sure you have what you need."

"You don't have to give me these things," Ichigo said, pulling on the clothes hung in the closet.

"I don't have to, but I want to. Now, get dressed for the beach. Harribel is having a little party for everyone since she's signed the adoption paperwork on Rin and Hanataro, and the others will be there too."

Ichigo nodded, feeling nervous about being around people but wanting to see the others that hadn't been in the hospital. Of course, Noba and Ririn weren't going to be there, they were still in the hospital. But he would get to see the others, and he liked that idea. He picked out a pair of loose sweat pants and a t-shirt and a pair of sandals. He emerged and saw that Aizen was dressed in sweats too. He smiled and followed him out to the car and before long they'd arrived at the beach. It was just after six and Ichigo felt better the moment he got out and Rin and Hanataro came running toward him.

"You came!" Rin said happily as he hugged Ichigo.

"Of course, I couldn't miss this!" he said, smiling and ruffling Hanataro's hair with a smile.

"Are you okay?" Hanataro asked, smiling at him.

"I am now, especially that you guys are okay," he said as they began to tug him out toward the bonfire.

"Come on, the others are here too," Rin said as they pulled Ichigo out where the others were. Aizen walked slowly after them.

Momo looked up as they pulled Ichigo over toward her. She jumped up and ran and hugged him immediately. "Ichigo!" she said, smiling and hugging him again. "Look I want you to meet my new family."

Ichigo saw Toshiro, one of his classmates, sitting beside an older woman. "You know Toshiro Hitsugaya, and this is Grandmother Hitsugaya. I used to live by them when I was really little, before, well, you know, and she seems glad to have a granddaughter," she said softly.

Ichigo nodded, smiling at them. "It's really wonderful to have a family like this but I miss you and the others. I wish we'd all gone together."

Ichigo smiled. "I'm too old anyway, Momo, besides, six kids to one family is a lot," he said to her. She nodded. "But we'll get to see each other all the time."

Momo nodded enthusiastically and gave Ichigo an extended hug. He saw the Nozomi was over on the other side where Ichigo's cousin Uryuu was standing with a woman with dark hair. Rin ran up to her and she turned and saw Ichigo there. She smiled, waving them over.

"Ichigo!" she said, hugging him tightly. "I hoped you would be here. This is Yoshino, she's taking me in; she's your cousin's landlady too! And guess what?" she asked excitedly.

Ichigo shook his head. "What?" he asked.

"Ho and Ban live in her building too! One of her tenants takes care of them, Ichigo, they're fine! Well, relatively, you know, but still. We can see them," Nozomi said, smiling.

Ichigo couldn't help smiling back. Nozomi was talking, a lot, and that was good. She never talked much, so this was amazing. It meant she was happy. "That's good, that's really good."

"Have you heard where Noba and Ririn are going?" Hanataro asked from beside Ichigo.

Ichigo shook his head. "They'll be in the hospital for another week or two, I think. Noba's still on a liquid diet after they fixed his jaw."

Uryuu nodded to Chad. "Ichigo, this is my roommate, Chad," he said, smiling at his newly found cousin.

Ichigo looked up at the larger boy and resisted the urge to yelp. He was very large. And in Ichigo's experience, that was a bad thing. He swallowed down his fear and nodded to him. "Hi," he said, looking down without thinking about it.

"Ichigo, come meet our new brother!" Rin said, pulling him toward a group of girls and a couple boys.

"Wonderweiss this is Ichigo!" Rin said, smiling.

Ichigo nodded at the blonde boy who seemed absorbed in a tablet in front of him. It looked like he was doing something with photographs. He nodded and then went back to whatever he was doing. Beside him, the dark haired boy looked up.

"Wonderweiss doesn't talk. I'm Luppi, his roommate. We live across from your cousin at Yoshino's building," Luppi said, smiling at Ichigo.

Ichigo shifted uncomfortably, the amount of people weighing on him. "Uncle!" came a call and Luppi looked up with a smirk as Ggio Vega came toward them. Luppi got up and hugged him in return. "Nephew," he responded with a smrik.

Rin and Hanataro glanced between them. "Aren't you the same age?"

Luppi smiled. "My mom was forty five when I was born. So Ggio is my oldest sister's son. We were born a year apart almost. We used to live in the Philippines, my dad is from there, and my mom is Japanese. Gigo's dad is also from the Philippines. We kept in touch even after we moved back to Japan, and he came up here for school."

"And you love telling people that," Ggio said as Soi Fon walked up behind him.

"Of course, who believes I'm an uncle at my age?" Luppi said with a smirk.

Around them, Harribel's consorts were talking. After a few minutes Apacci stood up and clapped loudly.

"Okay, everyone up to the house! Getting a bit cool down here, we've got food and drinks, but no guzzling or drunkenness in my house, otherwise, out you go!" Apacci said, shooing everyone up the embankment to the beach house.

All the guests made their way to the surprisingly roomy beach house that Harribel owned. It wasn't huge, but it was definitely spacious. Of course, they didn't live there all the time, but for the summer it was nice for parties.

Nel bumped into Apacci. "Why no drunkenness inside?" she asked, frowning.

"You can have a few beers, but I lost my second oldest brother to alcohol, so you know, I don't like it at all, but I tolerate it for you bunch," Apacci answered as she got everyone into the house. She paused. "Besides, I don't think the boys would react well to drunkenness."

Nel glanced at the nervous group that had congregated together despite all the room in the house to disperse in and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Everyone mingled and ate and chatted for a long time. Ichigo and the others from the Utagawa house tended to stick together, no matter how often others tried to encourage them to move away and into the party. Finally, Harribel came out and checked on them before going to see Aizen.

Aizen had stayed clear of most of the kids during the gathering. It was a nice, easy occasion, but all of them were nervous.

"They don't know how to act," Harribel said as she came up beside Aizen.

Aizen nodded. "They're still scared. A bunch of people meant they had to hide from them at best, and it meant they'd be abused at worst."

"How long will it take?" she asked as she watched them.

"Depends. How has it been going with those two?" he asked, seeing how they clung close to Ichigo even when talking to the others.

Harribel smiled. "They've been taking food and hiding it all over the house. I can't be angry, they had to do that before just to survive. I guess it will be a habit that's hard to break."

Aizen nodded. "Yeah."

"You took Ichigo in?" she asked, looking over at him. "How's he doing?"

"I just brought him home today. He was upset because he didn't know how he was going to pay for the stuff I bought. I got him personal care items and some clothes. He didn't want anything to do with his other options, especially his father," Aizen said slowly.

"It will take time, she said softly. For all of them."

"Harribel, tell Rin and Hanataro what we do on Christmas!" Mila Rose yelled from the other side of the room.

She smiled. "We spend it in Australia, on the Gold Coast where I grew up."

Rin and Hanataro exchanged looks. "And we're going to go?"

Harribel laughed. "Of course, you are, where else would you be except with us?"

The rest of the night was talk and by the end, Rin and Hanataro had broken away from the cluster and Momo as well. Nozomi stayed near Ichigo, though, and most the night, clutched at his hand. At the end of the night, everyone went their separate ways.

Aizen led Ichigo to the car and noted his quiet. As they got home, he hadn't said anything more. Aizen quietly led him into the apartment.

"Ichigo?" Aizen asked as they closed the door.

Ichigo turned around. "Yeah?" he asked. "Do you need me to do something for you?"

Aizen shook his head. "Nothing, Ichigo, just have a good sleep."

Ichigo nodded and headed to the room Aizen gave him. His room. Could he call it that? His room…he had been so small the last time he had a room. He flopped back on the bed and before long found he couldn't sleep at all. He grew frustrated with it, and grabbed the covers off the bed and laid down on the hardwood floor at the end of the bed covered up with a light sheet only, with his head propped on his arms. A few minutes, and he was fast asleep.

Aizen choked back tears when he saw where he'd slept the night before when he checked on him com morning. He closed the door gently and sat down at the table. He wasn't sure that he could handle it. So much pain, he didn't know how he'd help him. He would try though. He would try.


	11. Matters of Chaos and Order

Chapter Eleven

Ichigo woke up the next morning rested, but at first he nearly yelled out in fright. He didn't realize where he was at first. He put his hand to his chest and panted several long breaths and remembered he was with Sosuke. He didn't know why but he was already calling him that in his head instead of Professor Aizen. For some reason, hearing about his sexual exploits as a teenager had made him very familiar to Ichigo. After all, if someone as upstanding and good as Sosuke had been promiscuous when he was younger, then Ichigo wasn't such a terrible person for the things he had done. So, in a way, it made him feel like sex wasn't something to be ashamed of. His mind, however, could not get that he hadn't consented to anything. He still held onto the firm belief that he had let them have him even though there was no way a thirteen year old could possibly consent.

He got up and went into the bathroom, finding a stocked shower and spent a very long time in it. His body still ached in many places, chief of which currently was his back. He was sure it was from lying in the hospital bed for so long. It was too soft and it wasn't what he was used to sleeping in. He slowly got out of the shower and looked in the mirror. Most the bruises were fading now, and he was wondering vaguely if he would end up having any more. He honestly couldn't imagine having a relationship with another human being that didn't involve him being beaten and bruised. He couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that pain wasn't a part of love, because Mabashi had hurt him but he still loved him.

At the thought, Ichigo's eyes filled with tears. Not at his own pain, but sudden stabbing grief at Mabashi's death. He should have died and then Mabashi could have gone on and found someone better than him. He swallowed, reaching down and turning on the sink. He washed his face, the cold water helping the redness in his eyes from the tears. He wasn't going to cry in front of Sōsuke. Sōsuke was a good man. He was a strong man. He was everything Ichigo was hoping he could be one day.

He dressed slowly and smelled something really good cooking. He frowned and quietly opened the door and looked out. He heard Sōsuke humming in the kitchen and could hear the sound of food being cooked. He felt his stomach growl and chewed his lip. He didn't realize he was hungry until he smelled it. He swallowed nervously and crept out of the room quietly to peer into the kitchen. Sōsuke was wearing his pajamas (pants that were white with blue stripes and a solid blue tank). Ichigo blinked, realizing that Sōsuke was quite muscular. He could see the defined abdominal muscles and realized he had really thick biceps. He always wore suit jackets and slacks at school, so it was hard to tell that he was really quite fit.

However, the most interesting thing to him was that he had tattoos. And he had a lot of them from what he could see from his position. He was facing away and he could see that he had a full sleeve down his left arm that ended about an inch above his wrist, just enough that when he wore long sleeves like he usually did it was impossible to see. In fact, Ichigo realized he never had worn short sleeves that he'd ever seen. Written in beautiful scrip among the cherry blossoms was "Senbozakura" in a way that it flowed with the tree limbs. Among the tree blossoms and leaves, there were other images worked tastefully into it. A beautifully designed woman sat on a swing dressed in a red flowing caped robe, her face hidden. When he moved enough, he saw that there was also a snake winding its way throughout the cherry blossoms. Unless he got closer, though, he couldn't see anything else since he was standing with his left arm facing him, but he could tell there was something on his other arm.

"Are you going to watch me cook all morning, or are you coming to eat breakfast?" Sōsuke said, looking over his shoulder.

Ichigo jumped, not realizing that his host had any idea he was there. "Um, sorry, I just…I wasn't sure if…if you wanted me to come…come in."

Sōsuke shook his head, dishing out two plates smoothly and setting them at the small table. "Come, sit, you need something that isn't hospital food."

Ichigo couldn't help but pause, but he moved forward, the smell too much to stand. He sat down and stared at a full plate of food that was real food. He paused and then looked up to Sōsuke already eating his food and reading something on his mobile. He looked up and smiled at Ichigo.

"Eat, Ichigo, before it gets cold," he said, smiling.

"Um, you have tattoos," he said suddenly, then winced, pinking in his cheeks a bit.

Sōsuke looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, most from my college days, but not all. It's a record of where I've been, you see. The things that make my heart stronger, good or bad, you know."

Ichigo slowly started eating and then glanced at the arm. "What do they mean?" he said softly, looking at the incredibly beautiful work.

Sōsuke smiled, holding up his left arm. "Well, the cherry tree and blossoms are for my Senbozakura, the first person to every hold my heart in his hands, Byakuya. The woman in red, that's for Kisuke, and the snake is for another, a man named Gin Ichimaru," he said, gesturing to each in turn. "Then," he said, showing him the other arm. "These masks represent the faces that people wear," he pointed to a set of white masks that were fanned out, each one making a different facial expression. "And, the flowing river, that's a river of changed, because we can all change and become different people, for better or worse," he said, indicating the base of his right sleeve which was a long and winding river down his arm.

"They're so lovely," Ichigo said, reaching out tentatively to touch Sōsuke's left arm where the cherry blossoms descended. "To do this, you must have loved him a great deal…" he said quietly.

Sōsuke shrugged. "I did, when we were together, he was the only thing that mattered to me. But that was a while ago. I mean, not very long, I'm not that old," he said with a chuckle. "But long enough to have come to be able to appreciate all the good he gave me."

"But…you said he broke up with you…didn't that…hurt?" he asked, frowning.

Sōsuke nodded. "Of course, it felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest, that's when I got the tattoo."

Ichigo frowned. "After he broke up with you?"

Sōsuke nodded. "I decided that there was so much good in what we had, that I wanted to remember it for the rest of my life. The same with Kisuke. Though, I did add his tattoo while we were together. The same with Gin. These, they are my story, you know?" he said smiling. "I don't often show them to people."

"You should," Ichigo said, fingers gently moving up his forearm touching each and every colorful line of ink. "They're so amazing…"

Sōsuke swallowed and smiled at him. "Your cousin and his roommate will be coming by later. They wanted to take you out for lunch with them and maybe see about getting you a phone."

"I don't have money, though," he said, frowning.

"That's okay, your uncle is providing it for you," Sōsuke said smiling, finishing his food.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, I don't want him buying me things."

"Ichigo, it is for your own safety," Sōsuke said, his voice taking a harder edge. "A phone would go a long way to making sure if something happened while you were alone someone could be there to help you quickly. To me, it is essential."

Ichigo's eyes widened a bit and he stared at him, having never heard him take command like this. He nodded immediately, then finished his food, not wanting to look at Sōsuke anymore. He would see the blush dusting his cheeks if he did. Afterward, Ichigo retreated to his room and hid. He didn't want to even think about talking with Sōsuke again because just knowing the things he was learning; it made him want something else, and he had no idea why.

**-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-**

At close to one, the bell rang and Sōsuke called Ichigo out of his room, dressed now in a pair of tan slacks and a long sleeved t-shirt, reading a book on the couch. He looked up as Ichigo emerged, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Uryū and Chad were standing inside and Ichigo once more was taken by how big the dark skinned man was. He hid his tremble as he smiled tentatively at them both. He crossed his arms and held himself.

"Ichigo, how are you feeling?" Uryū asked as his friend stared impassively into the apartment.

"Um, f-fine. Slept well, still sore and…and getting used to this," he said trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.

Uryū nodded and gestured for him to follow. "Come on, my father wants to make sure you get a good phone and we thought we'd take you to a nice pho restaurant that's near the phone place."

Ichigo nodded, following Uryū but being very uncomfortable because Chad walked behind him. He couldn't help it. He felt vulnerable as it was, and then to have this very big friend of Uryū's near, it just felt way too familiar. He swallowed, remembering Choe and a couple of the other larger "partiers" that had come to visit him and the others. He shivered uncontrollably for a second.

"Are you cold, Ichigo?" Uryū asked, glancing over to him as they got to the car.

Ichigo shook his head and tried his best to smile as he slid into the backseat. Chad drove and Uryū got into the passenger. "Chill, that's all," he said, sighing, watching the world go by.

After a few minutes in the quiet car, they pulled into an electronics store. Uryū took the lead as Ichigo just marveled over the amazing phones that they had. He vaguely remembered Uryū asking him questions, but he didn't even know what they meant. He had seen some nice phones, of course Ryo and Yoshi had nice phones, but he'd never thought of owning a hand me down let alone a new phone. While he was looking at a few of them, he saw Chad standing near him and almost yelped. He chewed his lip and tried not to imagine how violent someone his size could be. He swallowed and turned around just as Uryū handed him a phone and proceeded to snap a watch on his wrist.

"What…?" he said, looking up at Uryū.

"Well, I know you aren't used to carrying a phone. So this is a set. This is a smart watch, and its connected to the phone, so even if you don't have the phone, you can still send messages, listen to music, read email, monitor your heart rate and use the pedometer…all sorts of stuff. See, I have one too," he said, holding up his arm to show off a watch similar to the one he'd given Ichigo, but the band was silver with small stones set in it.

Uryū didn't include the other features that were included in the extremely high tech set. For one thing, it was equipped with two types of GPS locators, and the plan was under his name, giving him full access to anything to do with it. He didn't intend to give Ichigo that information, but he also wasn't hiding it. If Ichigo found out on his own, then fine, he'd deal with it, but he wasn't going to put out there that he'd just equipped his cousin with something that he could track him with anywhere in the world, having even activating several features that would act as emergency beacons should something happen to him.

Uryū had grown quite protective of his cousin since he'd been in the hospital. He felt guilty, somewhat, for not having done anything, knowing of course that he was a child himself when his cousin was taken in by those monsters. He didn't intend to lose him again. He could see that he was in no way aware of anything that his new phone and watch could do, but he'd teach him over lunch.

"Alright, we'll go eat, and I can show you how to use these," he said smiling fondly at him.

Ichigo nodded, not sure what to do with these things. He knew how to use smart phones, well, he knew how to make calls and text on them, but that was about it. He didn't even have anyone's phone number yet. They ended up in a large pho restaurant that was really quite nice. They even had to wait to be seated.

Ichigo picked up the menu, sitting with the other two at a square table across from Uryū and beside Chad. He was already nervous, and sitting beside the larger man made him even more nervous. It wasn't like he thought Uryū's roommate and friend would do anything, it was just his sheer size reminded him of several less than happy encounters in his household.

"This is too much," he said, blinking at the prices. "I mean, this is expensive, I can't…" he said, looking across at Uryū.

Uryū smiled. "Ichigo, my father is a doctor. He has expressed interest in making sure that you are treated well and comfortable. He is your uncle, you know," he said smiling as the waitress came to take their order.

Ichigo nodded and quickly ordered something, not really seeing what it was, just to get the girl's expectant eyes off of him. Chad, speaking for the first time that Ichigo heard ordered, and despite himself Ichigo flinched, knocking his utensils to the floor. Uryū frowned and looked at him and Ichigo swallowed, trying to play it off that he was clumsy and apologizing for it. Their food came soon, and Uryū told Ichigo about the things that went on his life, talked about his friends and the sort of things he did for fun, told him about Yoshino and the four-plex they lived in. He told him about Ho and Ban and how Koga took care of them. He mentioned that a man he knew named Coyote Starrk had purchased the large Uttagawa house and planned to renovate it. Ichigo ate silently and listened as he spoke.

"Ichigo, you've eaten only half your soup," Uryū said, concerned when he glanced over to see that Ichigo had already put down his spoon and was staring at the bowl.

Ichigo swallowed and thought about anything he could talk about. It wasn't like there was much interesting that had ever happened that didn't have to deal with drugs, sex, and pain.

"I…uh, appreciate you buying me lunch, I just…I'm not used to eating so much in one day, and Sōsuke…ah Professor Aizen, he made breakfast…" he said, looking over at the Uryū and Chad who had both finished their soups and a side order of sashimi they had shared.

"That was early, Ichigo, how much are you used to eating?" he asked, frowning in concern.

Ichigo shrugged. "I…well, it just depended on what we could hide, you know. If…If I could get to the kitchen, I'd take whatever I could carry and we'd hide it downstairs. There was this loose board in the floor, down there, and we had pried it up and dug out the dirt under it so we had a hiding spot…" he looked distant as he spoke. "She…she never did find it, which was good, because if she'd ever found out there was food down there…" He paused. "I would get caught a lot though, so I never really got enough for everyone. Sometimes I was lucky, and when I went up, everyone was asleep, you know, and I'd grab rice cakes, crackers, sometimes there would be leftover food on the counter that no one would miss."

Ichigo picked at the skin on the back of his hand thoughtfully. "But I wasn't always lucky, sometimes Yoshi, she'd catch me in the kitchen. If she wasn't too lit, it wasn't bad, but sometimes…sometimes she would be in a mood…and playing with her guns. She wasn't careful, that's how she shot Caine, was really by accident, but…but it wasn't the first time she shot someone like that, just the first time they had to hide it…" he said. "She…she'd use her guns too, to scare us, sometimes she'd hit us with them, you know, and sometimes when she was really in one of her scary moods, and she caught us she'd make us watch her load them and then…use them in…on…I mean on…" he said, catching himself, eyes wide.

Uryū blinked and glanced at Chad. "You…Ichigo, are you meaning what I think you are?"

Ichigo shook his head and looked away. "No, no, I don't know what you mean, just…" he muttered, not even wanting to think about it let alone tell someone else. "Sh-she beat us with them, that's…that's what I mean…she threatened us with them…pistol whipped…p-put the hot barrel…" Ichigo's voice cracked again no matter how hard he tried not to let it.

Ichigo looked at him. "Don't look at me like that," he said quietly, looking at his hands again. "Please, I can't stand that look."

"Did you tell the doctors this? The police? Professor Aizen?" he asked, frowning.

Ichigo shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

Uryū leaned over closer and spoke barely above a whisper. "You're telling me that this crazy bitch raped you and the others with a loaded handgun and you don't think it matters?"

"No!" Ichigo said, shaking his head, and scrambling to his feet. "Just…leave it!" he said, seeing the bathroom and making a dash for it because he was going to throw up just thinking about the few times it had happened, or that he had watched it happen and couldn't stop it. He hadn't been able to protect the others all the time, no matter how hard he tried, and that more than anything was gut wrenching to him.

He dropped to his knees in the stall and tried to control his stomach. He didn't want to throw up. He had to get control of himself. It was too much though, to think about these things that happened to them, the things that had become so common and normal that he didn't even think about them. Now, though, that it wasn't normal, it was sickening to think about in so many ways. He spent so much time trying to convince himself he was willing, he wasn't forced, he had let them have sex with him. That's what happened, he had convinced himself because then he felt like he'd given himself to protect the others. He'd given up his own dignity to save theirs. But he hadn't always been able to do that. And when Uryū said it, when he actually thought about it, he realized no one would ever let someone do that to them. No one, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself of the fact. He didn't want to be a victim. He wanted to be strong.

He was sobbing in the stall and didn't hear the outer door open, and he definitely didn't hear the lock click.

**-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-**

Candace leaned hooked arms with Bazz, her on again off again lover. She wouldn't call him a boyfriend; after all, the best thing about him was his ability to fuck her into oblivion. When she wasn't trying to scratch his eyeballs out of course. However, to their disappointment, they came to Karakura Town for the weekend to find that Yoshi and Ryo was gone. Their house was closed up, and no one was there. It looked like no one had been there for more than a couple weeks. It was annoying; she always enjoyed smoking up with her and watching her beat the living shit out of those brats she kept. Also, it kept Bazz from being too violent with her if he got to fuck the hell out of one of her boys. The boys weren't as delicate as the girls, and he got off on Candice watching him fuck them anyway. Of course, she got off on it too.

So, they'd stopped in a pho place for food since they couldn't get high. They'd been quiet, already feeling the need for a hit coming on them. So when they looked over and to their surprise saw one of Yoshi's brats sitting at a nearby table, they had both been curious. They didn't recognize the two men with him, and he obviously was the same kid they knew. The orange red hair was a dead give away.

"The fuck, Bazz?" she asked, glancing at him.

He shook his head, frowning. "He shouldn't be out in public unless he left her."

"You don't think she got busted?" she said, softly, looking around them.

Bazz shook his head. "No way, she had fucking blackmail on half the police force and most the judges. No one was going to touch her," he muttered.

"But how would he get away, then?" she said. "She said he was her special one, the one she liked torturing the most because he wanted to take care of the other little shits. She wasn't gonna let him go."

Ichigo got up and took off toward the bathroom and Bazz smirked. "I can find out, one way I know to get that little shit to talk…" he muttered, standing and following him. Candice smiled and nodded, leaning back in her chair.

Bazz followed him into the bathroom, a smaller one, two urinals and two stalls, and the outer door locked so if there was a family they could use it as well. He smirked, hearing him sobbing in one of the stalls. He wanted to know what happened to Yoshi and Ryo, but he thought he'd have his own fun too. He quietly walked up to the stall, using his fingernail to twist the lock as quietly as he could. It opened, and the kid was wrapped up in his own self he didn't hear it, or notice when it swung back.

Ichigo sighed and sat up, trying to collect himself. He was about to stand when he felt a hand clamp over his mouth and saw glittering blade flick in front of his eyes.

"Ichi-baby, how you doing?" came a voice he hadn't heard for a while. Bazz.

He swallowed convulsively, holding his hands over Bazz's where it clamped against his mouth. "See, you can imagine me and Candice's surprise to find out no one is at your house. Everyone's all gone, locked up tight, so that has me wondering what happened. So we think, maybe she moved the operation. I mean, really, she had so much dirt on the cops, they weren't going to go for her. But then, wait a fucking minute, how is Yoshi's favorite little fuck slut out and about by himself if they moved the operation?" he asked, sliding the black over the skin on his face gently, not cutting him. Yet.

Bazz pulled his hand off his mouth. "What happened?" he whispered in his ear, holding the knife close to his throat with one hand while his other slid around and started to undo the jeans he was wearing.

Ichigo was panicked but he knew better than to not do what he said. Bazz liked his knife, and more than once had used it on them. He only liked the boys though. "She-she g-got busted…she…she and R-ryo ran…they're gone…I don't know where they went, please, just let me go, I don't want…"

The point of the knife pierced his throat enough to let a trickle of blood flow down his front. "No, no see, that can't happen," he said, sliding Ichigo's jeans off his hips and then pushing him down flat on the seat of the toilet. "I don't believe you, so let's see if you got a different story in a couple minutes," he muttered, and Ichigo wanted to scream, but he still hand the knife against the small of his back now.

"Now, you be a nice, quiet little fuck-slut, and I might let you get up and walk out of here without your two boyfriends knowing that I had my way with you in here. You think they'd like to know that you can't even go a few days without a fucking dick in you?" he muttered, positioning himself and pausing to trace the knife down Ichigo's spine.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, no," he muttered. He did not want Uryū to know about this, but he wasn't willing. He wasn't protecting anyone at all now. He wasn't going to let it happen like this.

Ichigo started to yell out for help but Bazz reacted fast, reaching up and using his free hand to slap it around his mouth and yank him backwards onto him in one move, slamming into him with more force than he would have liked. He screamed against his hand, mostly in shock, but more than a little in pain. Then everything seemed to explode around him. There was a loud thumping sound, something cracking and then he was falling forward, barely catching himself before faceplanting into the toilet seat. He gasped, feeling hands on him again.

"Stop, no, don't!" he cried out, pushing hands away from him and scrambling to get away.

"Ichigo, its Uryū!" he heard and looked up to see Uryū's face instead of Bazz.

Despite himself he grabbed onto him like he was going to disappear. He could hear something outside the stall but he didn't want to know what was happening, he just held onto Uryū, who had taken his sweater off and covered Ichigo's lap with it while he waited for something. Finally he looked up to see Uryū's roommate standing in the open doorway of the stall.

"We need to get him to the hospital," Uryū said softly.

"No!" Ichigo said, shaking his head. "T-take me back home, I'm fine, really, just take me back to S-sosuke's…"

Uryū frowned. "Come on, let me help you," Uryū said quietly, helping him stand up and watching as he fumbled with shaking hands to get his jeans back on.

Uryū couldn't help but notice the blood running down the inside of his thighs as he pulled on the clothes. The fact that he was used to having this happen, and that going about his day afterward wasn't much of an issue bothered Uryū greatly.

They came out the door to see that the man with the red floppy Mohawk was standing at a table with a woman with long green hair yelling at the manager. Ichigo froze, recognizing the woman as well. She stopped in the middle of her insistence that they call the police because her boyfriend was assaulted in the bathroom by Chad and came around and glared at Ichigo. He shook in Uryū's grasp.

"Well, well, if it isn't the biggest little whore ever to live?" she said with a grin.

Ichigo's eyes went wide, blood still dripping down his chest where Bazz had cut him. Uryū looked to see Chad staring at her.

"Leave him alone. You and your friend have done enough," Chad said, looking between them.

Bazz came over, his eye black, and his nose still oozing blood. "What? You can't seriously be angry that I was fucking this slut? It's all he's good for, being the whore that he is."

Ichigo ducked his head and turned away from Uryū. It was Chad, though, that reached over and pulled Ichigo into a protective grip, surprising him with the gentleness in the huge man's touch.

"Leave here, before I make you leave. He is not what you say because he never asked for what he went through," Chad said, ushering Ichigo from the room while Uryū left his name and number with the manager along with Urahara's number for them to call and report the incident.

Ichigo lost the ability to stand as soon as they got out the door, starting to heave breaths and grabbing onto Chad to keep him steady. "Easy," he said softly and helped him into the car. "We will get you back to Sōsuke."


	12. Fettered Chaos

Chapter Twelve

Aizen wasn't sure what made him more concerned, the look of concern and worry on both Chad and Uryū's faces, or the fact that Chad was carrying Ichigo into the apartment.

"What happened?" he said as Chad walked in and put Ichigo down on the couch gently. He looked up at Uryū. Ichigo was out, and it appeared more than sleep to Sōsuke's eyes.

Uryū stared at him for a minute. "I didn't…I can't…he was…but there…" he stammered until Chad put his arm around his back and Uryū turned, burying his face in the larger man's chest and letting out a chocked sob.

"Ichigo became upset at lunch after telling us something he didn't want to talk about. He went to the bathroom. Uryū said he thought he should go after him, to see if he could help. I told him maybe I should go since it was Uryū that had made him upset. The door was locked and I was going to wait for him to come out, but I heard him yell out. I broke the door open and found a man with a knife in the middle of assaulting him. I pulled him off of Ichigo and punched him twice because he tried to get back in to him. Ichigo refused to go to the hospital. He and the woman he was with said some things to him when we left, trying to make him upset. He passed out in the car," Chad detailed, petting Uryū's head without really thinking about what he was doing.

Chad could feel wetness spreading on his shirt. Uryū was still sobbing, his hands balled into Chad's clothes. "I couldn't…I couldn't do anything, the look…he was scared but he…he didn't want to go anywhere but back here, Professor," Uryū said, looking up at Sōsuke. "I told them to call Urahara," he said. "The woman, she was trying to say that she was going to report Chad for hitting the man, but I don't know what she was going to do. We had to get him away from there."

Sōsuke nodded. "You two go home. What would he have told you that upset him that much?" he said, knowing that it might come up.

Uryū swallowed, paling. "That…that that woman, that Yoshi, she…she would use her guns…on them," he said, feeling a wave of nausea crawl up his throat.

"Used them how?" Sōsuke asked, frowning.

Uryū shook his head. "Um, to rape them," he whispered quietly.

Sōsuke's eyes widened. He knew that they had all said that Yoshi had done things to them with her guns, but they had never indicated that she had done something like that. Sōsuke nodded and knew there was more to the stories that the group had given. He'd suspected, considering the level of abuse they had endured, that there was more than what they said. He wondered what other ways that the woman had used to abuse them and subjugate them to her sadistic whims.

He ushered Uryū and Chad out the door before Ichigo woke up. First things first, though, he thought with a sigh, picking up his phone and calling Kisuke.

"What is it, dear?" came Kisuke's cheery voice.

"Ichigo had an incident. He refused to go to the hospital for treatment, though," he said rubbing his face.

Kisuke sighed deeply. "What happened?" he asked softly.

Sōsuke detailed what Uryū had told him, adding that he didn't think that Uryū was really in the mental state at the moment to give him an official statement. He told him that Chad had stepped in, and about the woman that was there yelling to have the police come because of what he'd done. Kisuke took down notes as Sōsuke spoke, making a note of the name of the place.

As he put the phone down he heard Ichigo groan. He swallowed and he tried to steel up his stomach because this wasn't like talking to a victim as a counselor. He was more personally attached to Ichigo than that. He wasn't sure what it was, though. Of course, between all the work he'd done studying relationships and trauma, combined with his own past… He stood slowly and went over and sat down on the futon by Ichigo's feet.

Ichigo's eyes fluttered and he frowned, pain lancing up his spine. He'd gotten used to not waking up feeling like he'd been…wait…

His eyes shot open and he gasped to see he was on the futon in Sōsuke's living room. He sighed, swallowing thickly. "Sōsuke, hey," he said, trying to smile.

"I wish you would let me take you to the emergency, Ichigo. They could take an evidence kit, at least," he said softly, watching for any signs of distress other than the slight pain he was expressing.

Ichigo closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "It wouldn't matter, Sōsuke, he didn't finish, Chad…Chad pulled him back before he could," he said swallowing hard.

"Who were they?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Two of Yoshi's friends," he said, sighing. "They weren't blackmailed, they were just there now and then to hang out and have the drugs. Bazz B is what they called the guy with the Mohawk. And Candice Catnipp is the woman's name, if I remember right. He'd been there before with me, she liked to watch while her and Yoshi smoked pipes," he said, turning his face away as he spoke.

"Ichigo, Uryū told me what you said she'd done," he said softly.

Ichigo turned and stared at him for a moment. "I didn't say she did anything. I said…I said…I said she beat us with her guys…and she sometimes shot someone…and she…she…"

Sōsuke sighed and reached out took Ichigo's trembling hand, moving closer to him. "Ichigo, don't. You don't have to hide what happened to you. Why don't you want to tell anyone what she did?" he asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"Because…because it's embarrassing. Do you…do you think anyone will look at us the same if they knew what she did to us?" he said, eyes starting to tear up. "I couldn't stop her from hurting the others often enough. I didn't care, I told her to…to do it to me instead…"

"Were her guns the only thing she used to do that to you with?" he asked softly, holding onto his hand tightly even when he pulled. The look on his face told him it wasn't.

"They hurt the most," he finally said, staring at his hand encased in Sōsuke's. "She…sometimes, she'd make us watch her load them, and she'd hold…hold us over the kitchen table, telling us if we moved, she might miss and shoot us in the back of the head. So we stayed still, we…we knew she'd shot Cain by then. Then she'd fire one sometimes, then…then she'd p-put it inside and it would hurt so much, because that barrel was so hot, and she'd just keep doing it, telling me…us…that if we moved any, she couldn't guarantee it wouldn't go off there. She'd laugh, and then she'd just…just…when she was done she'd just put it away, and then would say that…that…if we told anyone, even…even Ryo…she'd kill us…"

Sōsuke could feel him shaking, but he could tell he wasn't done yet. "Th-the girls, she…she did it to them too, but she would put them in the front too…and their back…and I would scream at her to stop…and she would and then she'd push me down and…" His breath caught. "Th-there were other times...besides the guns. Just…just whatever she could find. She used to say she wished she'd been given a dick so she could just feel what it was like instead of just holding us down while she pushed whatever it was in and out and just kept doing it…not stopping…" He looked hollow for a minute. "But I let her do it, Sōsuke. I let her! I didn't say no, so it…I'm not a victim!"

Sōsuke moved and put both hands on his shoulders and held tightly. "I want to tell you something. Show you something. Okay?"

Ichigo looked up slowly and nodded. Sōsuke smiled and let go of his shoulders and started to unbutton his shirt. Ichigo bit his lip slightly, both out of fear and a sudden rush of desire at the same time that he didn't understand completely. Sōsuke slipped the long sleeved button down off and Ichigo could see his beautiful tattooed arms again. But this time, he smiled again, and pulled the undershirt he was wearing off, revealing another set of tattoos on his chest and stomach. Near his waistband on the left side there was a tattoo of one of those awareness ribbons, the only one he had that Ichigo could see. It was situated under a wide rainbow, and over the rainbow were dark clouds pouring rain onto the rainbow. It was like the ribbon was wearing a rainbow umbrella over it. In script on the ribbon the word "survivor" over the curve of the ribbon. Under it, the words "After the Rain".

"I was sixteen, and stupid," he began, putting Ichigo's hand on his stomach over the tattoo. Ichigo frowned and moved his fingers realizing that there was a scar under the rainbow of the tattoo, at least four inches wide and very thick. "I went out to this bar, my first time out, you know. I had a fake ID. I'd always looked older, you know. So no one questioned me as I went in. I was excited because I couldn't tell my parents I was gay. I knew I'd be disowned in a moment. So this was how I was going to get to be myself, if only for a little while, you know." Sōsuke smiled sadly. "This was well before Byakuya or Kisuke became parts of my life. I thought I knew everything, you know? I didn't think I could possibly be in danger, I mean, there were people all around, and I was just going to have one drink. Just one. I didn't want to get drunk, that's not why I was there. I wanted to be around anyone that wouldn't judge me, and I wanted to see other couples that were both men or both women. You know, so it felt normal, this desire to be with another man."

Ichigo had sat up, wincing somewhat at the pain that lanced through his ass at the motion. If it hadn't been a familiar feeling from being taken so many times without preparation, it might have bothered him more. As it was, the burning pain and even the blood he'd wash away in the shower, was so normal for his life.

"But I didn't know anything. You hear about people drugging women in bars all the time. Women getting slipped these date rape drugs. I didn't…didn't even think that it happened at places like this. I had one drink, and I got chatted up by several guys. I was flattered, and had studiously turned down offers for more drinks, because I told them I had to drive. It was just harmless flirting. At least, I thought so, but I got a bit queasy. I remember I stood up, and I got to the bathroom, but the world just skipped and I was looking at the night sky. I didn't feel anything, not at first, I was so out of it, I couldn't tell what was happening. Then, when he penetrated me, I screamed because it hurt so much. That's when he stabbed me, out of fear or surprise, I don't know. It didn't stop him, though, he kept going as I was bleeding there, muttering about how much of an idiot I was. No one had heard me, and no one came. He finished and picked up the knife and took off. I just remember thinking I had to get up and get my clothes. I couldn't be found like that…" he said with a sigh, placing his own hand on the tattoo.

"I was so worried about that part, the embarrassment that I'd just been raped in the back alley of some gay bar, that I couldn't fathom that I was literally bleeding to death. I tried to get up, to get my clothes and I slipped in my own blood. That's when I realized it didn't matter that I was half naked and laying in who knows what kind of filth, I was dying," he said, moving and taking Ichigo's hand again. "He hadn't taken my phone, so it was good I found my clothes because I managed to get the phone out and call emergency services. I passed out before they even got there. Next when I woke up I was in the hospital and my mother and father were there. I thought…I thought they'd be mad, but they weren't. When I'd healed, my dad asked me if I wanted to do anything and I said I wanted a tattoo over the scar, to show what I'd survived. I wasn't even seventeen yet."

Sōsuke smiled gently. "I remember vividly walking into the tattoo place and my dad talking to the lady, saying he'd like to have a woman do the tattoo. They didn't have any female tattoo artists though. I told my dad it was okay as I sat down and took my shirt off. But when the guy leaned over me I almost jumped out of my skin. He asked what was wrong, and I said nothing. Then he asked what I wanted. I'd drawn this myself, well, obviously, not as nicely as he did it. But I handed the paper I had scrawled this rough rainbow and ribbon on and I saw his eyes tear up. This big, tattoo covered, bearded man, he had to be at least six foot five, and three hundred pounds, you know, and he teared up and nodded. He looked at my dad, and he said he'd do it for free, and I asked why he would do that, it was at least two hundred dollars of work. That's when he turned over his arm and showed me the teal ribbon on the inside of his forearm, covering the scars of a suicide attempt. He was a survivor too," Sōsuke said softly. "Survivor, Ichigo. Not a victim. Never a victim."

Ichigo's mouth had long ago gone dry as he stared at Sōsuke. "Survivor," he said quietly, staring at his hands.

"It doesn't matter if it was one time, if it was a hundred times, Ichigo. It doesn't matter if you never said no, it doesn't matter if you were drugged. It doesn't matter, Ichigo. You are a survivor, so are the others. You didn't consent. None of you did. You didn't freely offer up your body, not when the only other choice was to be beaten or watch someone else be raped instead. Even if you begged them to use your body, it wasn't your choice. They forced you, they forced you all, and that's not okay, never okay. You need to realize that there is no way you could have consented. You were a child, Ichigo. A child. They beat you, they threatened you, they drugged you, and they raped you. All of you. You have to realize it wasn't your fault, you weren't letting them do it; they were going to do it either way. You had to try to survive, and that meant you had to give them what they wanted," he said. "Look, I went to school to become a trauma counselor because of my own trauma. I wanted to help others. But this…" he said, pulling Ichigo's hands to his chest and holding them there. "This is me, the survivor, not the counselor."

Ichigo nodded slowly and then leaned forward into Sōsuke's arms, his breath hitching. "I…I didn't ask them for it. I didn't do it, they made me," he said, his voice nearly breaking into tears at every word. "I couldn't tell them no…I had to survive…I had to…we had to live…we had to survive…"

Sōsuke wrapped both arms around his back and then pulled him into his arms, tucking Ichigo's head under his chin. "I'm not a whore," he heard Ichigo whisper. "I'm not a slut. I'm not used. I'm not dirty. I'm not. I'm not. I'm…I'm a survivor…" he said, clutching Sōsuke's body tightly.

"That's right, Ichigo. That's right," Sōsuke said, petting his head gently as he started to sob into Sōsuke's bare chest.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Chad got Uryū in the car with relative ease. It seemed he had gone numb by that point and was just sitting in the car staring straight ahead. Chad had even buckled his seatbelt for him because of it. He swallowed and drove home quickly, wanting to get Uryū to a better place before he talked to him about what had just happened. He didn't know what he was going to say, but he had to say something.

Chad didn't speak much, he never had. He'd been a violent child, a dangerous thing since he was bigger than anyone else in his school. His parents had died when he was younger, and he was very angry. He remembered that anger, that fury in his heart and he wanted to take it out on the world around him. He'd gone to live with his Abuelo. He'd gotten into another fight on the way home from school, some boy that was yelling something about him being Mexican instead of white. He'd broke the boy's nose and put him in the hospital. His grandfather and took his hands and held them, telling him he wasn't given those big hands and his big body to hurt people. He was given them to protect others.

After that day, Chad hadn't been in another fight until today. And despite the fact he'd hit the other man, he knew that he had done it to protect Ichigo. They pulled into their parking space and Chad guided Uryū, still silent into their apartment and sat him down on their sofa.

"Uryū, please," he said, sitting beside him. "Speak to me."

For a long minute, Uryū stared and then he turned to Chad. "Why? Why would someone do those things to him? To anyone?" he said, wide eyed and staring at Chad.

Chad tentatively reached over and took Uryū's much smaller hands into his. "I was told by my Abuelo that I was given these big hands and this big body to protect people. Some people have not learned that lesson," he said with a slight nod. "People do these things because they think they can have whatever they want in life even when they have not earned the privilege. To have someone, in body, soul, heart, or spirit, that is a privilege that has to be earned. It cannot be taken. I would spend an eternity earning such a privilege and never gain it rather than to take it by force."

Uryū frowned and turned his hands in Chad's larger ones. He stared for a long time at those hands, cradling his. "I…I…" he said, his breath quickening with Chad's closeness. What was he thinking, he thought to himself as he felt his heart rate skyrocket just from his hands on his. Chad never touched him before. He'd never even tried to. He looked up at him, his eyes wide and bright. He saw the soft look in his eyes, and for the first time, he saw it. The yearning. The longing. The things he had ignored. He took a quick breath and licked his lips.

"Chad…are you…do you…" he muttered, feeling Chad's fingers moving across the backs of his hands gently, softly.

Chad didn't say anything still, just kept looking deep into Uryū's very soul. Uryū couldn't take it anymore. He reached up and grabbed Chad's face and pulled him to him and kissed him quickly on the lips. He let go and sat back, looking shocked that he had done that.

Chad smiled, a gentle, subtle thing that bespoke more than any speech ever could. "I have earned such a privilege, Uryū?" he said quietly.

Uryū nodded and before he could say anything else, he found himself sitting on Chad's lap, facing him with Chad looking up at him, hands running down his back. Uryū panted for a moment then dove forward, putting his hands on either side of Chad's face and sucking on his lips franticly. Chad opened his mouth and let Uryū in and began pressing back against his tongue with his own. Chad's hands moved to unbutton the shirt Uryū was wearing, and it was so hot all of a sudden, Uryū couldn't get it off fast enough. Chad's hands began to explore every bit of him, pausing to flick and pinch at his nipples before they slid down his back over the swell of his ass.

Uryū was grinding his crotch against Chad's as they sat there kissing and touching for the longest time, rubbing their hardness against each other through their clothes. Finally, though, it seemed Chad had enough of the teasing and slid Uryū's pants down over his hips and then rose up to pull his own off. Uryū felt a rush to his face as he was fully exposed, and got to see Chad's endowments in full. He gasped a bit, swallowing as his fingers danced down his thick, long cock. He didn't know if he could take it, though, he was so big…

Chad's fingers, of course, weren't idle, wrapping his own hand against Uryū's cock. He pulled Uryū closer one his lap, trapping their arousals together and stroking them. Uryū gasped and panted, watching as he couldn't stand it, coming hard onto Chad's hand. He rolled his eyes back as his body relaxed. Of course, this gave Chad the chance to work Uryū open, sliding one of his cum covered fingers underneath the smaller man and inside with little warning as his other hand held Uryū in place on his lap. Uryū gulped, feeling full just from Chad's finger working into him. His hands were so big, it was no wonder, he moaned as he felt that finger slide in and out rapidly. He moaned a bit then reached over to the side table. He fumbled for a second, moaning several times as Chad fingered him deeper and harder. He finally grabbed it, a packet of lube. He had it in his pocket one day after their sex education day during health and fitness. They'd handed out condoms and lube packets.

He ripped open the packet with his teeth and handed it to Chad who nodded, pulling his finger out with a pop that made Uryū shiver. He watched as Chad coated two of his thick fingers with the lube then set the packet on the arm of the sofa. Uryū leaned forward into him and sucked on Chad's neck a bit as he pushed two of his thick fingers into him. Uryū couldn't help but moan out loud this time as he felt the burning stretch as he worked both his fingers up further and further into him until he struck the spongy spot that made Uryū twitch and squeal out loud and bit down on Chad's collar bone hard. Chad didn't mind as he kept probing that spot with his fingers, watching Uryū bounce and writhe against him for more of it.

Chad knew that he was large, in fact he'd had more than one partner reject him for that very reason. So he intended to let Uryū stay on top. He grabbed the lube packet and took the rest of it in his free hand and coated himself with it. He pulled his fingers out of Uryū hearing a slight whine as he did it, but he grabbed both his hips and pressed him to lean up. Uryū caught what he was doing and knelt up a bit, letting Chad guide himself under him. Uryū knew this was going to hurt and he was going to be sore tomorrow, but he was wanting that inside him, filling him and making the world feel real again. He wanted Chad inside him, and he was not going to wait for it any longer. He took a breath and began to slide down, feeling the head slip inside easily enough but it was so hard to keep going. Part of him wanted to stop and forget it because it was more than he'd ever taken. He panted, holding himself up, barely having moved down onto Chad at all.

Chad saw his reluctance and reached up and took his rapidly flagging arousal and began to stroke him while looking into his face. Uryū bit his lip and closed his eyes tight, trying to relax everything as he slid down further and further. He was beginning to wornder when he was going to get to the base of Chad's huge cock when he felt he'd finally taken him all the. He leaned forward, panting and tears streaming from his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Chad whispered. "We can stop."

"N-no…just…gimme a minute…gotta adjust…fucking hurts…" he muttered, feeling the throbbing of Chad's cock inside him. It was taking longer than he wanted, but he could feel his body starting to loosen and he rolled his hips experimentally.

Chad was reward with a long, low drawn out moan from Uryū as soon as he moved. He could feel his body trembling around him and he started to kiss his neck as Uryū began to move, feeling every inch inside him and brushing his prostate with each thrust.

"Oh god, Chad…" he gasped as he worked himself back and forth, his own cock now completely erect and dripping on Chad's belly. Chad grunted now and then but otherwise was quiet as Uryū's pace began to get faster on him. "Full, I'm so full, Chad, it feels so good…" he muttered as he began to fall off in his pace.

Chad moved then, flipping them, dropping Uryū onto his back in the couch and pulling his legs up on his shoulders. He began his own pace, slow at first before working up to a faster and faster pace. Uryū was moaning and whimpering, his hands entangled in his own hair.

"Faster, fuck, faster Chad," he gasped, feeling Chad's body pushing down on his cock and slamming right into that one spot. "Harder, fuck me harder," he nearly yelled grabbing onto the arm of the couch behind his head as Chad did exactly as he asked.

Finally Uryū couldn't take it anymore and came suddenly with a loud yelp, moaning out the waves of pleasure loudly as Chad held to his control for a few thrusts then exploded into Uryū's quivering body. Chad fell over on top of him, proceeding to lay kisses all over his neck and chest, his cock already hardening inside him again. Uryū moaned, feeling the fullness return. Chad flipped him to his belly, this time, pulling his hips up and slamming back into him from behind. Uryū felt like the world was going to come apart at the seams as Chad fucked him into coming again, this time without touching his cock. Again, Uryū came with a surprised yelp and moan as Chad came with him, leaning over him and kissing him down to the small of his back.

As he sat there, though, panting, he felt Chad hardening a third time. He gasped but it was too late, Chad was already going again. Uryū found himself flipped to his side this time, Chad having pulled one of his legs up and over his shoulder while he straddled the other. It didn't take long before Uryū had gone over again, and this time, it seemed Chad was well and truly spent.

Uryū grimaced as he felt chad pull out of him and felt the cum drip down his legs. He needed a shower, he was thinking as he was suddenly swept up into Chad's arms and then set down in the shower on his feet. Chad smiled and began to wash Uryū, pausing to kneel and push him against the shower wall and finger him while he "cleaned" him. Uryū found himself coming again in the shower, the repaying the favor by trying his best to suck Chad's cock. He'd have to get the throat deadening spray, he thought to himself as he settled on just sucking and licking at the head until he came.

They managed to get dry and dressed, and though exhausted, they had to go talk to Urahara at the station before he left about the morning. Chad entwined his fingers in Uryū's as they walked out their door to stop and stare.

Wonderweiss was sitting on their porch and Luppi was standing at the railing with a smirk on his face. He clapped softly and stared at them, his smirk spreading across his face.

"About time," he said. "Sounded like you had fun."

Uryū's face turned nearly purple as he turned and buried it in Chad's chest. He felt Chad's deep laughter as he did his best to hide from everything. He felt Chad put his hand across his shoulders and despite the embarrassment, he was smiling.


	13. Quieting Chaos

A/N: There are some discrepancies that you'll see. I've changed Ichigo's age to 19 instead of 18, and I'll be altering the rest of the story to compensate. I've also given Aizen new traits, like the tattoos and his survivor history. I don't want to cheat the narrative, so those things will be fixed in editing. Chapters may also be shifted around to account for some issues I noticed with flow.

Chapter Thirteen

Isshin had been provided with a moderately sized house in Karakura Town. Kaien had asked the girls and they had decided that they wanted to stay and get to know their father again. They had been five at the time of their brother's assumed death and their father's apparent suicide. The house was small, but it had four bedrooms. The girls had taken one, Kaien had taken another, and Isshin the other. Kaien's wife had to return to Tokyo to her job but Kaien had been able to take some time off work. The last bedroom was where their shinigami guard was staying. Kenpachi Zaraki was his name, and no one in the house thought anyone would dare do anything against them while that mountainous man was stationed there.

Yuzu became the household cook over the next couple weeks as they settled into the new situation. They couldn't go back to Tokyo until Inaba was captured, out of fear that he would retaliate against the girls as well. The safest place for them was there with the shinigami to watch them. Kenpachi, despite his size, was incredibly good with the two fifteen-year-old girls. Karin had taken an immediate liking to the nearly six foot eight inch tall man. Yuzu had been cautious of him at first, but soon found that he enjoyed sitting with her when she wanted to practice her formal tea ceremonies. He was actually quite well versed in tea ceremonies. He eventually told her that he had a sister that was fourteen this year and perhaps they could meet sometime soon.

Kaien had tried very hard to let Isshin interact with the girls. Kaien had never told them anything but the truth. They both knew that Kaien was one of their uncles, and that there had been a very bad man that murdered their mother and their older brother. He told them that their father had killed himself out of grief, which of course, even Kaien had believed to be true. When he had received the phone call, the first thing he had felt was shock, but not surprise. He knew that Isshin would take whatever steps were necessary to go after the man that had hurt his family. However, to find out that Ichigo had not perished, and that he had left the boy to the whims of those that had been trying to hurt him to begin with… Kaien would never forgive himself.

Of course, no one could hurt over the situation more than Isshin himself. Now, two weeks later, he sat in the small kitchen as Yuzu, beautiful nearly grown Yuzu, moved around and served food for everyone. Yuzu had been the easy one. Yuzu had fallen in his arms sobbing and telling him how happy she was. Karin, on the other hand, had been angry. She was so much like her brother. It had taken a week before she would even sit down in the same room with him. Finally, it had taken Isshin and Kaien sitting them both down and explaining everything that had happened, including why Isshin thought his son had survived and Kaien believed that Ichigo had died. Once everything was in the open, Karin took a bit more time, but eventually, she began to hang out around him. First she was still silent, but soon she began talking to him. Isshin would begin to joke with them and tell them stories about their mother they had never heard before.

They had met Uryū and Ryuken as well, inviting them over for dinner one night. That had been an interesting evening, but it had ended on a good note. Isshin and Ryuken had left to talk outside by themselves, and Uryū and his "roommate" Chad stayed inside and spoke at length with the girls. The two girls knew that the two were more than roommates because of the way they stole glances at each other, and how now and then Chad would brush a hand against Uryū in a very gentle, intimate way on his arm or his shoulder.

Tonight, though, they were expecting company again. Three extra places were set at the table and Yuzu was busy in the kitchen. Isshin and Kaien sat on the small front porch talking. Isshin chain smoked, they noticed, and the girls had refrained from mentioning it to him. They knew that he was a doctor, and he should know how bad smoking was for him. However, they also knew that their father had lived a very hard life for the last ten years. Yuzu had just finished setting the table when she heard the door open and new voices. She wiped her hands and came into the living room where her father and Uncle were leading in three…unusual people.

"Yuzu, Karin, these are some friends I made in the last few years," he said, smiling.

Isshin motioned to the woman in what looked to be a maid's dress. "This is Riruka Dokugamine." He gestured to a tall, moustached man who also looked like he was wearing some sort of serving outfit in black and white. "This is her partner Giriko Kutsuzawa, and Yukio Hans Vorarlberna, who helps them out sometimes on jobs," he said, indicating the shorter blonde man who was steadily typing away at his phone and seemingly ignoring everyone around him.

"Jobs?" Karin said, looking up from the sofa she was sitting on playing her hand held game.

"Um, yes, they're bounty hunters. I've worked a few jobs with them over the last ten years," Isshin said with a smile. "I…I wanted to do something to help catch those horrible people and Inaba. I knew I couldn't do it myself."

Karin looked up. "So you were bounty hunting?"

"Sometimes, when I needed money," Isshin said. "But let us eat, I'm sure Riruka, Yukio, and Giriko could use a meal after their travel."

They all retired to the kitchen to sit and eat. For a while, everyone concentrated on their food, until Karin spoke up.

"So, what kind of jobs do you take? I mean, do you catch thieves or like dangerous criminals?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and looking them over.

The short blond spoke up at that. "Most the time we go pick up bail jumpers, deadbeat parents who don't support their kids, people mostly who aren't really dangerous. But sometimes, we get some dangerous ones. And sometimes the mundane cases turn out to be the most dangerous," he said nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah, our most recent catch was an identity theft ring," she said with a smirk.

Karin and Yuzu looked each other and smiled back at her. "Really?"

"Um hum," she answered, putting down her napkin and smiling, pink hair framing her bright face as she spoke. "Yeah, they were a huge operation, but no one could pin them down. There was a good sized bounty on their heads, but thanks to Yukio here and his magic with computers, we found them first. It was this hacker that was known online as 'A2', Aaroneiro was his real name, and his buddies the Loyd Brothers. Well, we got their location, and we go busting into this beautiful, upscale apartment, thinking these guys have scammed millions of people, so they should have something. But no, the place is dark and really empty. There were like some futons, these amazing computer set ups, and some boxes with clothes and stuff. It was like some weird art film set or something."

She paused and took a drink of her water. "Yeah, it was funny, though because the two Loyd Brothers, when they saw the three of us just kind of gave up. Girinko had to pull Aaroneiro away from the computer because he was trying to delete as much of the evidence as he could. They had so much money, though, and we asked why they didn't have anything. They just didn't have an answer for it though, they just wanted more money."

"Weird," Karin said. "To keep all that money and not do anything with it. I would have at least bought something.

Riruka shrugged. "Some criminals are like that. They don't even know what they're doing when they do it.

"What will you do when you catch the people that hurt our brother?" Yuzu asked quietly. "They…they really hurt him."

Riruka smiled sadly. "Yeah, your father told us what they had done. And we'll get them. They can't hide from us. I promise, we will find them and they will be brought to justice."

Girinko looked up. "Have you spoken with your brother?"

The girls exchanged glances and shook their heads. Karin sighed deeply. "He…he's had a hard couple weeks, getting used to not being with those awful people. We're going to see him at the place he's staying tomorrow though, and hopefully he'll come here to see us after that. He…he had a setback."

Riruka looked at Isshin. "A setback?" she asked.

"Yeah, a couple of Yoshi and Ryo's friends, not the ones she blackmailed, they ran into him and his cousin in a pho place. The guy ended up assaulting him in the bathroom before they figured out what was happening. He hasn't left this Sōsuke Aizen he's staying with since then," he said softly.

"Sōsuke Aizen?" Yukio said, looking up thoughtfully. "From Kyoto?"

Isshin shook his head. "I don't know where he was from, but he lives here now, and from what I understand he went to school here."

"Yeah, I think I remember him," he said thoughtfully. "A couple years ago, he had a private trauma counseling business. One of our clients was seeing him to deal with rape trauma syndrome after a violent attack. He seemed to be very competent. But he had told us that he wasn't sure he'd stay in private practice. Something about his own trauma getting the best of him sometimes."

Isshin frowned. "His own trauma?" he asked.

"Yeah, I remember," Riruka said. "He was tall, had the wavy brown hair and glasses. Positively placid guy, tons of tattoos, all under his clothes though, I remember that. I had come in one day while he was doing something and had his sleeves rolled up. I asked him if he was yakuza since he had them all down his arms," she said smiling.

"Was he?" Yuzu asked, her eyes wide. Was her brother in with a yakuza guy?

Riruka shook her head. "No, not at all. He just preferred a professional appearance, so he kept them under his clothes. He said they were his story, and that was why he had them. He had the most gorgeous cherry blossoms and cherry tree on one said. Now that I think of it, I seem to remember seeing a teal ribbon on his bulletin board."

Kaien looked up. "Teal ribbon?" he asked her.

"Yeah, you know those awareness ribbons. Well, I mean, he did counsel victims of sexual violence, and that's what the teal one means, sexual assault and violence awareness. So I didn't think anything of it. But, if he had his own trauma…" she said thoughtfully. Riruka was very good at putting together things that didn't seem to relate to each other, and extremely good at remembering small details. She brought those things to their small team that often helped solve their cases and find their quarry when both Giriko and Yukio were stuck.

"He could be a survivor," Giriko said with a knowing nod. "It would not be the first time someone tried to reach out and help others that had suffered like they had."

"Actually, more than that," Yukio said from staring at his phone. "When he was sixteen he was violently raped and stabbed behind a club not too far from here. He nearly bled to death before he got to the hospital," he said looking up. "Seems he also left the practice in Kyoto earlier this year, citing personal reasons when asked why he was leaving. He grew up and went to Karakura University until he was twenty-three. Appears that he also used to see Byakuya Kuchiki on the down low in college before Kuchiki married his later wife Hisana, and also was seen dating Kisuke Urahara and someone named Gin Ichimaru. A few other accounts detail he had several other shorter relationships as a college student. This sort of promiscuity often happens with those that have suffered sexual assault and violence." He paused and looked up. The girls, Isshin, and Kaien were staring at him in confusion. "What? I wanted to find out what his story was. I just pulled up old police reports and newspaper articles, well and a few blog posts by people he went to school with."

"Yukio can find anything on anyone in a few minutes," Giriko said with a smile. "Nothing can be kept hidden for long around him."

Karin and Yuzu nodded. "So it would seem," Kaien said, suddenly feeling a lot more confident in these people Isshin had brought in on the case. He glanced over to see Isshin smiling. He knew if anyone could catch the bastards, it would be this group.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was pacing again. He was more nervous than he thought he had ever been before right then. Sōsuke came up and put both hands on his shoulders and squeezed gently. The progress that they had made over the last two weeks was showing. Sōsuke's friend, a psychologist named Jūshirō Ukitake, had been over every afternoon to meet with Ichigo. Ichigo found the work hard, and most the time, he felt worse after he left and would end up crying wordlessly on Sōsuke for an hour or more. Sōsuke knew Jūshirō from when he had been going to school, as he had been in Byakuya's circle of friends. Jūshirō specialized in post-traumatic stress disorder of all varieties, from rape trauma syndrome, combat related, and bystander PTSD. Jūshirō himself had been a combat medic and seen quite a bit. After he had left the military with a medical discharge after coming down with a bad case of tuberculosis that had lingered despite treatment, he'd attended college with Byakuya. He had gone on to get his Psy.D. and both taught and ran his own private counseling service in Karakura.

Ichigo liked him a lot, even if his time with him would leave him emotionally and physically drained. He appreciated that Sōsuke never asked what they talked about, and he never tried to be Ichigo's counselor like Jūshirō was. Sōsuke said that if he wanted to talk to him, he would be there, but not as a counselor, as someone that cared about him as a friend. However, the flutter Ichigo felt every time Sōsuke touched him made him think that there was more there than just friendship. He'd mentioned it to Jūshirō today for the first time. He had been sure that Jūshirō was going to tell him that it was nothing, it was just a reaction to Sōsuke taking him in after everything that happened, or something else. Instead they had spent the entire hour exploring Ichigo's feelings and motivations for those feelings toward Sōsuke. He had expected Jūshirō to ignore it, but he hadn't.

Now, though, they were waiting for his father and sisters. His Uncle Kaien had opted to stay at the house, saying that they needed time together, and he didn't want to interfere. Especially since the shinigami guard stationed at the house was coming too.

"It will be fine, Ichigo," Sōsuke said in that gentle, soft voice.

"I know, I just…what do I tell them?" he said, turning toward him. "I can't tell them the truth…I mean…who wants…"

"Ichigo," Sōsuke said with a smile. "They want to hear whatever you want to tell them. Tell them what you feel comfortable telling them, and if they ask something you don't want to answer, explain that it makes you uncomfortable to talk about it. Okay?" he said nodding thoughtfully as the bell rung. "Want me to get it?" he asked.

Ichigo swallowed. "No, I…I'll do it."

Ichigo was expecting his father and his two sisters. He knew an agent was coming too, but he didn't think it would be a big deal. He'd gotten pretty good at dealing with people coming and going. However, when he opened the door and saw Kenpachi Zaraki, who towered over him and was more than a little imposing with his wild black hair, scowl etched brows and taking up the entire door, Ichigo couldn't help his reaction. He yelped and ran, slamming the door to his room and panting heavily.

"Ichigo?" Sōsuke said, poking his head out of the kitchen and then looking toward the door where he saw the problem as Kenpachi came in, frowning, followed by an equally confused Isshin and his two daugheters.

"What'd I do?" Kenpachi asked.

"Nothing," Sōsuke said, putting down the cloth he was drying his hands on. "I think your sheer size surprised him a bit."

Kenpachi frowned but didn't say anything else. Isshin and the girls exchanged nervous glances. "Here, here, come to the dining and sit down. I'll bring him out when he's ready," Sōsuke said, motioning all four to the dining table he had laid out with six settings. Luckily, he'd placed the extremely large Kenpachi away from Ichigo who was on his left side. He smiled at them and headed to Ichigo's bedroom and he could hear him inside, nearly hyperventilating.

"Ichigo, I'm coming inside," he said softly as he opened the door, glad now that the bedrooms didn't have locks.

Ichigo was sitting in the corner of the room, where he'd put out his covers to sleep since he still didn't sleep in the bed. He had both arms wrapped around his legs and his face buried in his knees. He didn't look up when Sōsuke sat down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"What happened?" he said gently to him.

Ichigo turned his head to look at Sōsuke and saw that clear, accepting look on his face. "He…he was big. L-like with Chad. There…there was this guy…Ch-Choe. He was one of the cops, so we all had to do everything he wanted b-b-because she had to get the blackmail on him. She told me when he came in the first night…she told me that he was a cop, and it was really important that I…I…I…fight. It wasn't a problem, though. I…I didn't act, not at all. He was horrible. He was so b-big. And he had b-big fists. He liked to punch and then he'd…he'd fuck you, but he had a small dick, so that wasn't bad. I mean, I don't think I'd ever seen such a small cock in all my time there. He was maybe this big all hard," he said, holding up his fingers about four inches apart. "Then…maybe because he had such a small cock or something, he wanted to s-s-see how much of his hand he could get inside you…" Ichigo shivered hard suddenly, eyes wide and vacant for a minute. "Th-the smaller ones he liked best," he said quietly. "So…so he'd come around and I…I would try to hid them. So it ended up being me he'd take upstairs," he said, wincing in remembered pain and hurt. "He…he…he could fit it all…" he whispered in a horrified tone. "And…and he'd say…say I was such a slut and a whore b-because of it."

Sōsuke pulled him into a tight hug for a long moment. "You weren't then and you aren't now, Ichigo. Remember. You didn't ask for what they did."

"I know, but…but it is so hard to get it through my head," he said, taking both hands and slapping on his head. "I told him to take me. I told him to fuck me with that horrible huge fist. How…how did I not ask for it?" he whispered.

"You didn't want Hanataro or the others to suffer. You had to do it to protect them. You knew how hard it was for you, and you'd been through it before," he said quietly to him, running a hand over his head as he sat there.

It took about fifteen minutes but finally Ichigo got to his feet, but he held onto Sōsuke's hand as they left the room to go and sit down. He wiped his eyes a bit, but he knew they were a little red. Kenpachi didn't know what to do, so he tried not to look at him.

"I-I'm sorry, um, just…M-Mr. Zaraki…he reminded me of someone else," Ichigo said, ducking his head in embarrassment.

"Ichigo, it's fine," Isshin said. "We understand."

Ichigo frowned and then shook his head. "No, no you don't," he said quietly.

Isshin bit his lip and nodded and glanced at the girls. Sōsuke came in and served everyone dinner and then sat down.

"Ah, Yuzu, Karin, why don't you tell Ichigo about yourselves? What you liked to do? Your favorite subjects?" Sōsuke said, seeing Ichigo wasn't wanting to talk at the moment.

Karin nodded. "Um, yeah, sure. I play soccer a lot, it's my favorite sport. I don't like a lot of school other than sports. I'm okay with math, I guess. I've got a few friends, and we hang out mostly and play sports," she said with a smile at him.

Ichigo listened as he ate, looking up and nodding every now and then. "I…I used to like to play soccer," he said with a slight smile. "Sometimes, Noba and me, we'd find a ball, and when they were sleeping it off, we'd sneak outside and play. We didn't all go, just in case we got caught, only a couple at a time. Just safer that way," he said, looking down at his food when he was done.

"Um, well, I'm really into tea party ceremonies and cooking," Yuzu said. "I like baking the best, and I love to make cookies and cakes. What's your favorite, Ichi-nii?" she asked. "I could bake you something."

Ichigo looked up and looked confused. "I…I don't know. I never got sweets too much…they usually at them before I could sneak upstairs to take food down for the others. And I always gave the sweets to the younger ones, anyway," he said smiling. "Ririn and Hana loved sweets, so if I found them, I'd give them up to them."

Yuzu and Karin exchanged a pained expression. They didn't want to keep reminding him of the horrible place he'd been for ten years, but it seemed like every memory surrounded that place. "Ah, well, I'll make a couple things. Oh, and unlike Karin, I love to go to school and see my friends. It's nice to get away from the house all day."

"Yeah, I was excited when I could start college…" he said. "We never left before then. We were homeschooled, well, if you call it that. Yoshi would fill out the tests and send them in for us. I…I ended up teaching the others from the textbooks that she was supposed to use. They would send them in these big boxes every year, and she'd take the tests out, and dump the books in the big trash pile to be burned. So…so I'd sneak out at night, and I'd grab as many as I could, and I'd hide them in this broken water heater that was in basement. It had a rust spot, you see. And me and Noba managed to chip it away until we could pull it open and hide the books inside. They'd get mold on them eventually, but not at first. I…I got tetanus from it, though," he said, looking at his hands. "I'd cut myself on the rusty metal. I got over it, which was a surprise, I remember how scared Noba was when he called her down when I was having one of the spasms. It wasn't a really bad one, though, I didn't die, after all. She didn't do anything, though."

Isshin frowned and nearly sobbed out loud. To live through a tetanus infection… He swallowed, reminding himself to talk to Ryuken about making sure that Ichigo had been vaccinated for anything else. He wasn't sure if he'd had even regular vaccinations.

Karin finally looked up, tears on her face this time, to Isshin's surprise. "How?" she said, looking over at Ichigo's placid face. "How can you just…talk about it like…so calm?" she asked.

Ichigo looked at her and shook his head. "I don't understand what you mean."

"You just…just act like its normal! Like I talk about playing with my friends!" she said, her hands balled up in her lap. "I…I don't know what to say…I missed you so much, Ichigo. I thought you were _dead_. And then, I find out you're not, and I was so mad. How could you have forgotten us. I was so mad. I'd grieved. I'd moved on with my life, how _dare_ you come back into it… Then I find out what…what you went through…and I can't be mad anymore. And I feel guilty, horribly guilty, because I had such a good life after our mom died. I had Uncle Kaien to play soccer with. I had Aunt Miyako to make cakes for me. I had all my vaccination shots. I got to go to school and learn things and have friends. You didn't. And I was mad at you."

She got up and ran out of the room toward the bathroom, leaving Isshin sitting staring at his hands and Ichigo staring after her. He turned and looked Sōsuke. "Why would she feel guilty?" he said softly. "She…she was just a little girl."

Sōsuke put his arm around Ichigo and squeezed him. "I'll go talk to her, Ichigo. Will you be okay?" he asked.

Ichigo gave a glance at Kenpachi but nodded. He couldn't be afraid of every big man he ever came across. He looked to see Yuzu wiping tears from her own eyes.

"Don't…don't cry, okay?" he said, staring at her. "I'm okay, you know. I don't blame you guys, or even you, Isshin. You…you did what you had to do. And I'm happy, you know. I'm so happy that you and Karin didn't have to go through what I did. I'd do it all again, if I knew you were safe," he said, smiling softly at the young girl across from him.

Things were silent for a while, and then Sōsuke came back. "I think she should go home and rest, Isshin. She's got to deal with her own emotions right now."

Isshin nodded and then gathered their crew up and they headed out. Ichigo gave each of them a hug and bid them good night. He stood there, looking at the door for a long time until Sōsuke put his hand on his shoulder.

"What is it?" Sōsuke said.

"I'm glad," he said quietly. "I'm very glad that Uncle Kaien took care of them."

Sōsuke smiled gently. "I know, Ichigo."

Ichigo turned and looked up into Sōsuke's eyes and wondered if he should do what Jūshirō had told him to do. Well, he didn't tell him to do anything. Ichigo had come up with the idea after talking to him, and Jūshirō had encouraged him to think about what his feelings meant.

"Sōsuke, how long after…you know…was it before you met Byakuya?" he said quietly, looking at his face carefully.

"Before Byakuya?" Sōsuke said thoughtfully. "Well, Byakuya wasn't the first person afterward. He was just the one that meant something. I…I hate to say it, but I was at the same bar within two weeks of getting out of the hospital, this time just looking for anyone who could make me feel alive. I…I can't even tell you how many there were Ichigo. That time, before I got started in college, it was a blur of faces for me. Then, I met Byakuya there one night, and afterward, he asked me to stay with him. He knew what I was, he knew I took home someone different every night almost. He…he said he wanted to keep me forever, but of course, that wasn't what happened. But for a while, it was nice, only one face to wake up to each morning," he said, looking thoughtful. "I just…I had to make myself feel something."

"Did it help?" Ichigo asked, frowning. "Sleeping with all those people?"

"Not until Byakuya. I felt empty, no matter what. I tried it both ways, top and bottom, and I just felt hollow afterward. But I'd go back out, trying again. I thought that if I could make it feel right, good, that I could get his face out of my head," he said smiling. "But even when I was on top, and in control completely, his face…it just would appear in front of me, and I'd walk away lost and even more alone than I started. But then, with Byakuya, when it meant something, that's when it helped. After that, I didn't have the one night stands. There were a few short relationships in there, and I always seemed to hop into bed pretty quick, but I had to make sure…"

"Make sure?" Ichigo asked quietly.

"Make sure they weren't going to hurt me, you see. Even still. It doesn't really go away, Ichigo, and that's okay. I still feel it," Sōsuke said, taking Ichigo's hand gently.

Ichigo thought about it for a long time, holding Sōsuke's hand in his. "So…it isn't bad if I want someone I like to fuck me."

Sōsuke shook his head and smiled. "Of course not, Ichigo. I mean, I wouldn't recommend doing what I did, and having a string of lovers. And, I wish you wouldn't use that word. If its someone you care about, it means something, or it should. You use that word to refer to what they did to you in that awful house. It should be something different now, not just 'fucking', like it was."

"What could it be besides that?" Ichigo said, frowning and looking at him curiously.

Sōsuke shrugged. "Making love. Having sex. Sleeping with someone. I don't know, it is your story Ichigo, you have to decide what to call it."

Ichigo nodded and then looked up at him again. He dropped Sōsuke's hand and then reached up and put a hand on each side of his face and pulled him down, seeing the surprise in his eyes as he pressed his lips against Sōsuke's. "What if…what if its you?"


	14. Shelter from the Chaos

Chapter Fourteen

Shelter from the Chaos

Ryo and Yoshi had done a good job so far of hiding from everyone that could have done something about them. At the moment, they were hunkered down in the lesbian bitch Harribel's beach house. It was getting too cool even for her bunch to come out and do the bonfires. Yoshi knew that she spent most of the school year staying at an on campus apartment at the University. Still, though, they made precautions with it. No one could really see the beach house from the road, but they'd made sure to close all the blinds, shutters, and curtains, and kept the lights to a minimum.

Ryo had been keeping track of the scanners and making sure no one came close to figuring out where they were. They knew that if they ran, they'd be caught pretty quickly with as strong a presence as the police had right now. Apparently, they took child abuse, neglect, and sex trafficking a lot more seriously than either had believed possible. Even without the drugs, the two were still honestly bewildered by how everything had gone wrong. They had the perfect set up, or at least that's what they had thought for so long. Over ten years, and everything they had carefully crafted had fallen down because of that fucking kid.

It was so startingly simple, and that was what made their set up perfect. The problem with running a drug den was nosy cops, nosy neighbors, and people running to said cops and neighbors. And more than anything else, Ryo and Yoshi wanted to be able to do whatever they wanted, without the consequences. So, blackmail was an obvious option. If they could manage to blackmail people in the town, no one could touch them. Of course, the problem was, using drugs as blackmail wasn't bad enough.

Yoshi had been friends with Inaba for several years. She'd been getting her supply for him for even longer. One night, as they set in one of the makeshift opium dens that Inaba ran now and then he mused about how he'd been betrayed by his once best friend. This led to discussion about how hard it was to carry on a decent drug trafficking business with people like that. Inaba had said he had a couple cops on the take, and that's how he found out what was happening. He commented he wished he had something on him, but the guy was clean. So Yoshi had asked a question that set the tone for the next ten years.

"What kind of blackmail is the best to keep people in line?" she'd said, thinking long about this idea.

Inaba had paused in his intake of smoke from his pipe. "Underage sex," he'd said simply. "You get a video of anyone fucking an underage, they'll do anything you want forever. Last thing anyone wants is that shit to leak out."

Yoshi contemplated that. "What if all they want are the drugs?" she asked thoughtfully. "What if they don't want sex?"

Inaba had grinned. "See, that's where the drug dealer comes in. Lace whatever they're taking with a little ruffies or something and then you can convince them to fuck anyone, especially if you throw a bit of Viagra in their shit too."

"That's genius," Yoshi had said a smile spreading across her lips. "But where would you get some underage brats to do it?"

Inaba shrugged. "No idea, but it would fucking work. You get a cop on video fucking a fourteen or fifteen-year-old slut, he's not going to talk about anything, and he'll stop others from looking into the operation."

That had been where she got the idea initially. It had taken a couple months but then she and Ryo had a major sale of a bunch of pure China White (cut of course, and stolen), and she told him what she wanted to do. He agreed, saying they needed to stay out of a major city, but they needed some way to get a steady stream of whores. He wanted to know how they were going to find anyone under eighteen willing to do it.

"Who says they need to be willing," Yoshi had said and grinned at him. "I got an idea," she said. "Look," she handed him a flyer. It was for a local foster home that was doing a fund drive. "Take in a passel of orphans, train 'em up to do whatever we say, homeschool them so there's no questions, and then use them to blackmail the fuck out of whoever we want. We've got a ton of extra cash right now even after we buy that run down farmhouse outside of town. Make a big fucking donation, and they'll not give a shit what happens to the brats."

Ryo had looked at her long and hard for a long. "That's…horrible…" he'd said, but then grinned. "But it would work."

They'd left there with four kids, Ichigo, Ho, Ban, and Noba that weekend. It took a while before they were ready, of course. At first, they just used the drugs to blackmail those that needed it. It started to look shady after a couple years, and that's when the first cop had come by saying he wasn't sure he could do it anymore. Yoshi told him to come chill out with her, and filled his crack pipe with a special blend to try out. A few hours later, the cop was passed out in the bed, and Ho and Ban were both huddled into the corner clinging to each other in shock and horror. Yoshi laughed, stepping up on the step ladder and taking down the camera and checking it. She snickered and then left the room.

They only did it to those they knew could do something for them. Luckily for them, it was only a few times, at least at first. Then Yoshi and Ryo had both become more unpredictable. Then the others were brought in as some left. And no one asked questions.

Yoshi growled under her breath and paced the room. It had been too long since her last fix and she needed it. For nearly ten years she'd had a hit at least once a day, and she was about to come out of her skin. Ryo for that matter was as well.

"We can do it again," he said, watching her pace. "Move on, set the same operation up."

"Don't be stupid, we can't do it again. That would be suspicious. Unless we got out of the country," she said, frowning. "But I don't speak anything except fucking Japanese! At least you speak French."

Ryo nodded. "France would be good. More sexual freedom, and I'm sure there's plenty of orphans…"

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door. Both of them jumped and glanced at each other. Surly it was someone looking for Harribel and her lesbian bitches.

"Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa! Come out and surrender!" came a loud male voice outside. "We know you are in this house! Come peacefully, and there will be no need of violence!"

Giriko stood outside the doorway to Harribel's beach house with Yukio and Riruka. Yukio had his cell phone on already filming. He enjoyed posting to the internet sites when they had a major bust. And this was a major bust.

Riruka's handgun was cocked at her hip and Giriko held his up and at the ready. They knew very well that Yoshi liked her handguns.

"I don't think they're going to come out peacefully, Giriko," Riruka said with a sigh.

"I hate having to pay to have doors repaired," Giriko said with a sigh and stepped back and kicked the door open.

Inside there was a scramble and the back door slammed. "Out the back!" Yukio yelled from the front as he saw both of them take off in different directions. "She's gone left, he's gone right!" he yelled, trying to keep an eye on them both. Giriko took off after Yoshi, and Riruka after Ryo.

Yukio stepped back and saw them both double back to try and get around to the pier. He frowned as Yoshi pulled a gun on Giriko and shot. Unfortunately, considering the stream of curse words, he guessed she hadn't loaded that gun. He saw her throw it at Giriko and snickered despite himself. She was slipping and sliding in the beach sand as she slipped under the pier pylons. Ryo almost ran him over as he ran past, heading to the pylons as well. Riruka nearly fell face first in the sand.

"Yukio! You could help!" she yelled.

"I am helping. Third pylon to the left," he said pointing. "I'm spotting."

Riruka snorted and took off, her skirt flipping up as she tripped again, giving everyone that would see the video a nice view of her ruffled panties. Yukio shrugged as he watched them weave and bob between the pylons. A few minutes later, he saw Yoshi come running out with Riruka behind her somehow, and Ryo was jumping down toward the beach with Giriko on his heels.

"It's like watching Benny Hill reruns," Yukio muttered in the background as the pair led Riruka and Giriko back and forth.

Finally, it seemed they'd swapped again, and Riruka managed to get above Yoshi on a sandbank and leaped down and tackled her to the ground. Yukio cheered from his position and then focused as Riruka managed to deftly zip tie Yoshi's wrists and ankles without much effort. Yoshi was screaming unintelligible profanities, but it didn't matter, Riruka had got her woman. Yukio switched the view on his phone to where Ryo was running, watching behind him as Giriko nearly caught him as he tripped and fell in the sand. Giriko got hold of him, but got his pant legs instead, the other man slipping out of his loose slacks and getting up to run again before Giriko could get up. Ryo didn't see his partner, and ended up tripping right over Yoshi's struggling form, going ass up. Yukio got an excellent shot of his tidy whities.

Yoshi was still screaming as Yukio came up and got closer to them. Ryo just laid on his stomach and let his hands get zip tied he looked at her.

"Just calm down, it's over, Yoshi," he said with an almost relieved sound to his voice.

Sirens could be heard in the distance and Yukio turned the camera around and smiled at it, a seldom seen look on the blond. "X-cution does it again! Captured, Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa, bounty set by unnamed party. Charges are child exploitation, child endangerment, child abuse and neglect, child sex trafficking, blackmail, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and I'm sure there's a few more in there."

Sōsuke blinked and looked at Ichigo who sat next to him staring at the computer screen. Ichigo was just staring at it for the longest time, even though the video was done. Then he leaned up and ran the video again. Then after he'd watched it five times he closed Sōsuke's laptop. He nearly jumped as Sōsuke's phone rang.

"Hello, Kissy?" Sōsuke said, frowning. "Yeah, I saw it. So they're in custody?" Sōsuke paused and looked to be listening for a long time. "Okay, yeah, so just that Inaba guy is left out there now. Okay, sure, Kissy. Yeah."

Sōsuke put his phone down. "They're in jail. They're not getting out, Ichigo, he says that there's no bail or anything set for them. There's nothing they can do. They've got the testimonies of a lot of different people, those that came forward. And it's looking more and more like a lot of the people they blackmailed had themselves been drugged after they started looking over the videos."

"I can't believe it," Ichigo said and looked at Sōsuke. "I'll…I'll have to testify at their court won't I?"

Sōsuke nodded. "Yeah, but we'll get through it."

Ichigo nodded, sitting back in the sofa and leaning into Sōsuke's strong arms. It was almost dinner, and after dinner, he intended to show Sōsuke how serious he was about his feelings for him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Isshin stood in the station with Kisuke and the three bounty hunters. "I can't thank you enough," he said softly.

"You know we owe you, old man," Yukio said, not looking up from his phone.

Isshin smiled and ruffled Yukio's blonde hair. "But there's still Inaba. And I'd like to find that Bazz and Candace that attacked him in the eating place," he said thoughtfully. "How'd you manage to find those two anyway?"

"All Yukio," Riruka said. "They were careful but not careful enough. They left an electronic trail, and I have no idea what exactly Yukio did, but he worked his magic."

Isshin sighed. "Did you find anything out?" he said looking at Kisuke.

"Well, we know that they started this after stealing a huge shipment of drugs from the Yakuza. I'm thinking they aren't going to get a warm welcome in prison when they get there. They managed to snag a shipment that was being moved during a bust. The police took in the traffickers, but those two managed to make off with enough China White to fund their little project," he said, frowning. "I just…as everything starts coming out, I'm amazed at how they did this. We're going to have to approach the people they blackmailed differently, now though."

Isshin looked at him and shook his head. "I don't understand, why's that?"

"Well, we found out that a lot of them, mostly the ones they had one video on that had never gone back again, had also been drugged into having sex with the underage kids. Seems like they concocted the best way to keep people from talking was to use the most horrible thing they could hold against them, even if they didn't want to do it. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty that kept going back after that, but there were a lot that we're pretty sure had gone there for drugs and nothing more."

Isshin nodded. "How can two people victimize so many people?" he said quietly.

Kisuke sighed. "I've been working this case for a long time, Isshin. I started when I got out of college, started working these cold cases. The kid that Yoshi shot, Cain, he was my first case. I couldn't figure it out. But I started finding where people were coving things up. I started seeing evidence disappear on certain cases, and it all came back to them."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Inaba saw the video almost as soon as it was posted. He snarled and sighed as he paced the dirty hotel room he was staying in about twenty miles outside Karakura. He couldn't come up with a good reason he shouldn't just keep going at first. But then, something just seemed to snap. He had to make them suffer. He had to. Isshin had done a lot of damage in the last ten years, and he couldn't just leave it now.

It hadn't been easy, but he soon found Isshin's trail, following him, foiling a lot of his more lucrative plots along the way. Informants turned over, random seeming busts on his drug rings. No, it was Isshin Kurosaki that had been doing these things. If he had never interfered, if he had just kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened, and Isshin would be a happy family with his wife and kids. But no, he had to be moral and disapprove of what he was doing. And now, he was cut off from most of his contacts.

He growled, glaring at the phone where another text came in telling him they couldn't help him. Isshin, he knew it. Somehow, he had wormed his way into high places in and now his people, _his people, _were turning on him. He threw the phone across the room where it shattered against the wall. The bastard was going to pay. Everything Inaba had built was falling down around him and he couldn't stop it. It wasn't his doing that the Utagawas had made such a mess of their operation. He just their drug supplier, nothing more. Old friends made the worst enemies. He growled again. He would bring Isshin down. He didn't know how. He just would.

He paused in front of the other phone and saw it was a text from one of his few viable Karakura contacts.

_Kurosaki is under protection detail now. One agent at the house he is staying at. Address to follow._

Inaba smiled. He texted back. _I want them all there at one time. Tell me when his fuck-slut of a son is there with him and when security loosens._

There was a longer pause than he would have liked. _Confirmed. May be after the holiday. Security is tighter due to the season._

Inaba smiled. That was okay. He could wait. He would wait forever if he had to.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Dinner was always nice with Sōsuke and Ichigo was more than grateful that Sōsuke was so very kind. Ichigo got up and took the plates to the kitchen then came back out to see Sōsuke smiling at him.

"What?" he asked, smiling himself.

"I'm glad to see you happy, Ichigo," Sōsuke said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Ichigo nodded, coming over looking at him for a long moment. "I'd like to be happier."

Sōsuke frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Ichigo didn't answer, just leaned over and kissed Sōsuke's lips gently then slid to straddle his lap. Sōsuke looked up at him with a bit of surprise. "I want you, Sōsuke. I want you to be my first, my real first."

Sōsuke looked at him and nearly couldn't speak. "Wh-what? Ichigo, I don't know if that's a good idea, I mean, you still…"

Ichigo put a finger to his lips. "Shut up. Look. I'm making a choice. The first one I've ever made, so don't you sit there and tell me what I should and shouldn't do. I know what I want. I want you. I want to know that there's more to me than the horrible things they did. I want to know that I'm still worthy of someone else. I want to know that you can handle everything I am and even the things they made me into."

Sōsuke looked up into eyes that were determined and blown wide with lust already. He could feel Ichigo's arousal grinding into him and he was already feeling his own desire rise to meet it. "Ah, I don't…I mean…I…" Sōsuke's voice trailed off with a sigh as Ichigo managed to slide his hand down the front of his slacks and take him in his hand.

"Hmm, Sōsuke, you've got it where it counts," he muttered, fingers slipping up and down Sōsuke's cock and flicking gently under the tip to make Sōsuke squirm under him.

Sōsuke's mouth had gone dry. He reached up and pulled Ichigo's face to his in a fierce kiss that was filled with nothing but pure desire. Ichigo responded, his tongue pressing back and forth with him as he frotted against him, still stroking Sōsuke under his pants.

"Bed," Sōsuke whispered and grabbed Ichigo under his ass and stood up with him. Ichigo gasped and grabbed Sōsuke around his neck. He swallowed because he just picked him up with no problem at all from a sitting position.

He oofed at being dropped onto the soft bed and looking up as Sōsuke stripped off his shirts, revealing his beautiful tattoos and muscles underneath. Ichigo, not to be outdone, shimmied out of his t-shirt as quickly as he could and kicked off the shorts he was wearing with nothing under them. Sōsuke glanced at his lack of underwear and shook his head.

"You little bratty thing, you were planning this," he muttered as he crawled over him and started kissing at his neck and throat.

"Hum, oh yes," Ichigo muttered, bucking his hips up toward him trying to get some friction on his own aching arousal. "I figured I'd have to seduce you."

Sōsuke smiled, sliding one hand down Ichigo's body and grabbing his cock in one hand. "Seduce me, huh," Sōsuke said, sucking at Ichigo's pulse points as he worked his way down to his stomach.

"Yeah, oh Sōsuke, inside, now," he muttered, propping himself up on his elbows and looking at Sōsuke with a look of yearning like none Sōsuke had ever said.

"Demanding," Sōsuke said, kneeling up and pushing down his own slacks and underwear, freeing himself.

Ichigo had never seen someone take off their clothes and felt like this. For the first time, seeing someone naked over him excited him. There was no dread. There was no fear. There wasn't anything he'd ever associated with sex before. He wanted Sōsuke. He wanted him to fuck…love…him. He wanted to see Sōsuke's face when he came. He wanted to arch under his touch.

Sōsuke reached over toward the night table and pulled out a bottle and a condom. Ichigo grabbed the condom and tossed it over his head. Sōsuke frowned at him in confusion.

"No, I wanna feel you. I got a clean bill, and they used condoms all the time anyway. 'Cept Mabashi, but he only barebacked me," he said, panting.

Sōsuke thought for a minute. He knew he was clear, and he knew that all those from the house had surprisingly been clean of any sexually transmitted diseases. He was about to argue, but Ichigo sat up and sucked Sōsuke's cock into his mouth suddenly and Sōsuke lost all rational thought. He stared down at his head as he cut his eyes up to Sōsuke and that was it. He pulled his mouth off him and threw him over onto his back, slicking his fingers with the lube as he looked down on him.

"You're sure?" he asked, looking down and back to Ichigo's face.

Ichigo nodded. "I'm sure. I gotta feel something again, okay? Show me what it's like to be loved and not just fucked."

Sōsuke nodded, leaning over him now and sliding a finger into him. Ichigo bucked a little, letting out a little gasp. It felt kind of nice, he thought, that feeling, and even when Sōsuke slid a second finger inside, he didn't feel that burning sensation that he usually felt. He winced a bit when Sōsuke's third finger slid inside him but he just arched toward him and moaned. Sōsuke slid his fingers up until he slid the pad of his middle finger against that spongy center of nerves. Ichigo arched again, his body tightening around his fingers. He smiled. He slid his fingers out and coated himself quickly. He'd love to spend even more time on Ichigo, torturing him with pleasure, but he couldn't tonight. It had been a long time, and he had never had a partner nearly as feisty and needy.

Sōsuke pulled Ichigo's legs up and pushed htem gently toward his shoulders. He found him to be very flexible, gasping as he slid the tip into his slicked entrance. Ichigo threw his head back and whined low in his throat as Sōsuke slid all the way into his body.

"Oh, fucking hell, baby," he muttered, holding his hips still. "You're so…so tight and…hot…ugh…are you okay?" he whispered looking up at Ichigo.

Ichigo was biting his lip, watching as Sōsuke slid inside him with ease. It hurt, but just a little, not too much this time. He nodded, entranced by Sōsuke's body and his heart fluttering in his chest at how concerned he was about him. Didn't he remember he was a whore? Ichigo closed his eyes for a second. No, he wasn't. He wasn't. Sōsuke wouldn't be with him if he was. His eyes opened and as Sōsuke began to slowly move, he stared at the tattoo on his stomach. The word survivor was bright and reminded him that he was just that. And he wasn't going to let them hurt him anymore. He was going to have love. He was going to be loved. And he was going to have a lover like Sōsuke and he wasn't going to be ashamed of what had happened to him.

"Sōsuke, come on, fuck, harder, I know you can," Ichigo moaned, beginning to get annoyed by Sōsuke's gentleness. "I'm not going to fucking break!" he sniped, frowning at Sōsuke.

Sōsuke nodded. "Sorry, baby, sorry, I'm trying to be careful…" he said, and Ichigo knew he was holding back.

Ichigo growled, grabbing him around the waist with his legs and locking them behind him and pulling him in hard, letting out a loud moan as he slammed against his prostate. "Fuck, Sōsuke, goddammit, just fucking do it! Stop being careful! Just fucking make me scream your name and fill me with your cum, okay! That's what I want, so stop treating me like a goddamned flower!"

Sōsuke's eyes went wide, and he nodded once, not saying anything else as he pulled back and slammed into him hard. Ichigo screamed out in pleasure as he slammed right into the right spot. He reached up and grabbed onto Sōsuke's shoulders as he proceeded to pound into him harder than he thought he would. Ichigo was a moaning mess as he gripped Sōsuke's back, nails slicing into the skin. Sōsuke didn't notice that there was blood running down his back as Ichigo practically shredded the skin there. He didn't care, he felt Ichigo starting to tighten around him and then clamp down on him as he came with a scream of pained pleasure. Sōsuke slammed into him a couple more times before he could hold back no longer, going over, squeezing Ichigo's body against him as he came into him.

Sōsuke immediately began kissing him again, thrusting shallowly inside him as he ravaged his mouth languidly. Ichigo was panting and out of breath.

"Oh, gods, Sōsuke, fucking hell," he gasped, still holding him as he came down off his orgasm.

Sōsuke pulled out, sliding down beside Ichigo and kissing his arms as he laid beside him. Ichigo felt something sticky on his hands and looked over Sōsuke's shoulder.

"Shit! Sōsuke, are you okay? I scratched you!" he said, gasping, seeing that his nails and fingers had a good amount of blood on them. "I like, fucking scratched the shit out of you…I'm sorry, gods, oh…"

Sōsuke smiled. "I know," he said softly. "You can bandage it for me, if you want, but it's okay."

Ichigo reached out and put a hand against Sōsuke's face. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"For what?" Sōsuke said, grabbing the cover and pulling Ichigo's naked form against him.

"For everything. For being there. For being someone I can love and someone that understands. For being you," he whispered, kissing Sōsuke's lips gently again.

Sōsuke nodded, pulling Ichigo into his body and letting him fall asleep against him. Sōsuke wondered if he'd done the right thing or not. Part of him, the counselor, was screaming at him that he was a complete idiot for sleeping with someone who was still recovering. The biggest part, though, the survivor, knew that sometimes, a loving touch went a lot further than all the talk therapy in the world.


	15. Holiday Chaos

Things were quiet for a seemingly long time. It was, in fact, only a couple weeks until the winter holiday began. Ichigo and Sōsuke spent much of their time together and in the apartment. After the incident with Bazz, Ichigo had developed more than a small amount of agoraphobia when it came to leaving. Because of this, he quickly became familiar with using his phone to keep up with everyone he cared about. Ichigo, of course, was quick and intelligent, and it didn't take long, despite his rudimentary technology knowledge, to figure out how to do everything he wanted to do on his phone. He took great care of it, and had gotten a new case and screen protectors for it, as well as for the smart watch. Sōsuke had offered to get him a computer but he had said the phone and watch were enough for him.

There was a planned holiday party at the end of the break. They had decided to wait until Harribel and her bunch returned before they got together. Until then, though, Ichigo kept up with his family through the internet on his phone. He found that Harribel and her group used Instagram a lot, as well as Toshiro, and shortly Momo as well. He created his own accounts on all the social media things, but used a fake name on all of them. He knew that for one thing, Inaba was still out there. But more than that, he felt disconnected from everything about his identity. He'd picked out the name Zangetsu Shirosaki. It was different but somehow he felt a kinship to the name.

He smiled when he saw pictures of Momo in a new kimono that Toshiro's grandmother purchased. The kimono was nice, but what made Ichigo happy was the smile, the genuine smile, on her face. He loved to see that, and it was one of the ones he saved to his phone of her. There were others, of her and Toshiro, playing games, talking, of her and Toshiro's grandmother. And he was so happy because she was happy.

Nozomi, as well, was doing better. He kept up with her as well, as she had started blogging about things, including her experiences in the household. Her blog began to get very popular. She had picked out various names for everyone, because she of course didn't want to reveal anyone's real identities. She'd taken to calling Ichigo Strawberry, which if it had been anyone but her, he might have minded. Noba she referred to as Mime, Ririn as Chickadee, Momo as Peaches, Rin as LittleOne, Hanataro as SweetPea, and Ho and Ban as Yin and Yang. She called Cain LostBoy. She called the blog "Recovery of Hope" and she called herself Hope. She referred to Yoshi as Hornet and Ryo as Viper. Ichigo thought all the names were fitting. He was amused at the others too, Uryū was named Couture, and Chad was called TeddyBear. It wasn't like Nozomi said who they were, but having met them, he recognized them immediately. The one she called Ivy he thought was Luppi, and the quiet kid Wonderweiss had to be Silence. Mama of course was what she called Yoshino. Finally, Ho and Ban's caretaker must have been Handyman since he seemed to do repair work.

Ichigo, even though she often wrote about the painful and horrible things that had happened to them in vivid detail, felt better after reading them. She was telling her story, all their stories, and it was helping her heal. He especially loved her entries on what happened with her new caretaker Yoshino.

There were apparently cats around the fourplex. She said that there was a beautiful blue/cream tortoiseshell cat that frequented the area where Chad fed the cats every day. Even as gentle as Chad was, he could never get her to come out. Dusty was the name they had given her. She was missing a front let, it seemed, and Yoshino had said she was pretty sure that Yoshi had shot her at some point. She'd recovered, though, on her own, and still hung around where she was fed. Nozomi wrote that she was sitting on the porch one day and the cat was watching her from the stairs. She had sat there and waiting. Finally, the cat had come up to her, tentatively at first. Nozomi put her hand down and the cat came to her, sniffing for a minute before letting her pet her head. Before long, the cat had crawled up into her lap, meowing in a very pretty voice. Nozomi said that she had a feeling that Dusty needed her as much as she needed Dusty. She said Yoshino let her take her inside and keep her there. She wrote that she would only come out for her, though, hiding under furniture if anyone else was around.

He knew that Ririn and Noba were also in a safe house, having not decided who they wanted to stay with. Both of them, of course, had taken to getting online as a way to interact with the world without actually having to leave their safety. Ichigo found out that Kisuke Urahara had been staying at the safe house with the most often, him and his wife. Ririn seemed to like her quite a bit, and liked the fact that she took her black cat everywhere, including carrying it around in a backpack that had a bubble on it for the cat to see out of.

Noba, like Nozomi, had taken to blogging, but his work was all poetry and stream of consciousness prose that really had no narrative to it. It was heart wrenching, though, and Ichigo knew what all those words meant when he read them.

Ririn, on the other hand, had taken to getting involved in survivor groups online. She had invited Ichigo and the others to few, and Ichigo had accepted but hadn't gotten up the nerve to post. He felt out of place with some of them, noticing that sometimes there were lots of female rape survivors, and very few male ones. In fact, he had to leave one when Ririn had posted about their experience and someone had said some horrible things about how male rape victims didn't belong in their group because their experience was not the same. Ichigo had been distraught by it, but Ririn had been positively livid, calling them out on their bullshit and leaving as well. Ichigo was finding that there were good places to visit in the world, and some bad ones.

However, his favorite place, out of everywhere, was in Sōsuke's arms. His love and his touches offered him peace and something that no one could give him before: stability. He knew that Sōsuke would love him and make him feel whole. It was more than he had ever hoped.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Harribel stood on beach and watched as Rin and Hanataro built sand castles with some other younger members of her family. They had been here almost a week already. She smiled to see them interacting so well with the other children. Harribel liked to travel through most of the area in and around Gold Coast and northern Queensland, visiting a lot of the nature reserves and the hinterlands. She also had various family in the area to visit and introduce the boys to. So far, the two boys had enjoyed themselves. They had opted to stay away from theme parks and large crowded areas, of course, because neither Rin nor Hanataro were up to that yet. She could see Rin was recovering slightly faster than Hanataro, but Rin had suffered less abuse than the other boy.

Franceska came up with a smile, looking down the beach fondly. Today they'd met a few members of their family on Currumbin Beach in Gold Coast. It was a fine day, and the sun was beautiful. She had slathered both boys and Wonderweiss with a ton of sunscreen. She, of course, thanks to her Samoan mother, had the natural deep tan color and rarely needed it. Apacci, Sung Sun, Wondweiss and the boys needed a lot of care, however, when it came to the strong sun in the area. It was a bit of a stressful situation at first for Hanataro, but he had eventually become willing to let them put his sunscreen on instead of wearing long sleeves and pants to protect himself from the sun.

"They're doing well," she commented.

Harribel nodded. "Yeah, I told everyone to tone it down for them. I think they did really well," she said smiling. Her family was generally very enthusiastic and happy, and mostly loud, when she and the girls and Wonderweiss came to visit over the "winter" holiday. It was winter, of course, in Japan, but it was summer here. They were just outside Gold Coast at a relatively quiet beachfront.

"I heard them talking to the pelicans before my father released them yesterday at the reserve," she said smiling.

Harribel's father was a marine biologist, and worked at a local reserve to rehabilitate injured animals. He specialized mostly in marine mammals and birds, and often helped out when they were shorthanded. There had been a recent storm, and the reserve had a large influx of injured animals.

"Talking to them?" Franceska said, looking at her.

Harribel nodded. "They were laying down by the cages when I went to help Father release them, and he stopped me and told me to listen and wait. Rin was telling one of the birds about how he had felt so sorry for Ichigo while he was there, and how much it hurt that he couldn't do anything. Hanataro was telling another one about how horrible he felt when he had to help one of the others put Ichigo's hip back into place not too long ago. We went up and they looked at us and asked if they could let them go, because they were carrying their pain away."

Franceska frowned, eyes tearing up already. "That's so sad," she said, looking on where the two boys played and acted so normal. "Are they ever going to be okay? I mean really okay?"

Harribel sighed. "They'll get through it, and we'll help them."

Harribel had known this would be go for them. They were away, and they were having fun.

And along the way, Appacci kept a steady stream of photos uploaded to her Instagram account, because she knew that Ichigo worried about the two young boys.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Luppi flopped onto the couch beside Nozomi in Yoshino's apartment with a sigh. Yoshino came over and handed him a tea. Nozomi had Dusty on her lap, happy that she no longer ran from everyone all the time.

"I'm so very glad to be home," he said with a sigh.

"I thought you were looking forward to visiting family?" Yoshino said, sitting across from him.

Luppi nodded. "Oh I did like it, but too many noisy kids. Ugh."

Nozomi smiled, petting the cat idly. "Well, it must have been nice to see everyone, right?" she asked.

"Definitely. But there's a reason I live here the rest of the time. I like my peace and quiet," he said, turning and smiling at Nozomi. "I saw on your blog that you'd managed the impossible and got that cat to be friendly."

Nozomi smiled down at the purring ball of fur in her lap. "Yeah, still surprised me."

"Kindred spirits find each other," Luppi said yawning. "I'm tired, though, so I'll see you tomorrow night at the party?" he asked standing.

Yoshino nodded. "Yeah, Harribel brought Wonderweiss home a couple nights ago so he could get some rest after their vacation. The boys are looking forward to seeing everyone after their vacation. Poor Hanataro got sunburned though, even though they slathered the poor thing with sunscreen the whole time."

Luppi smirked. "Ouch. Well at least they had fun. I'm going to be trying out a new paint set and easel my family got me soon. It's a nice one. Good to see they finally realize that I'm not going to 'get out of the art phase' and are going with it."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Are you ready, Ichigo?" Sōsuke called from the front room.

Ichigo was nervous. It was the first time he'd left the house in a while. In fact, he'd avoided leaving at all costs. He came out, having dressed warmly, wearing a pair of jeans and a long sleeved sweatshirt. Sōsuke was waiting by the door, a bag slung over his back with gifts for everyone that was attending the party tonight. It was going to be a lot of people, Ichigo knew, but it was all people that he knew. He was looking forward to seeing all the others as well.

"I'm ready," he said, seeing that Sōsuke was wearing a Holiday sweater over his usual button down dress shirt but he was at least wearing jeans. Ichigo's eyes were drawn directly to his ass because they were nice and snug.

"Oi, now, now, you come on now," Sōsuke said, seeing that Ichigo's gaze had settled on his rump. "I'll give you a nice holiday gift when we get back if you want," he said with a wink.

Over the last few weeks, they had become closer than Ichigo could have imagined. Every evening had ended up with them falling into exhausted sleep together. Ichigo had found that he helped a lot with the nightmares that he often woke with. He also found that being held and having someone care about his feelings and pleasure was purely amazing. He realized that he had a high sex drive, and perhaps it was because of his experiences so early in life, but Sōsuke was capable of dealing with it. He was even okay with the occasional outbursts of completely irrational anger Ichigo had. He'd felt bad after a particularly rough night once where he'd given Sōsuke a black eye. He hadn't meant to do it, but Sōsuke was trying to help him in a panic attack over something ridiculous, and he's punched him square.

Ichigo was quiet on the ride to Harribel's house. It was a large enough venue and though too cold for a bonfire, it had plenty room for everyone to get together. His father and sisters would be there, his uncle having gone back to Tokyo. He was nervous, as he had not really done much more than talk to his sisters and his father on the phone recently. He just couldn't, he needed time and space still.

When they got there, Harribel and her consorts were busy putting out food on a couple buffet tables while Rin and Hanataro sat on the futon excitedly telling Nozomi all about their time in Australia. He saw that Yoshino, Chad and Uryū had all gotten there already, as well as Luppi and Wonderweiss, both who were sitting in the kitchen on their phones. Chad and Uryū came up as Sōsuke and Ichigo entered and Ichigo saw that their hands were entwined.

"Ah, hello everyone!" Sōsuke said, putting down the bag he'd brought with presents by the buffet table. "Brought a few things for later," he said smiling.

Uryū smiled at Ichigo. "Hey, you have been scarce, have you even left the apartment?" he asked, frowning.

Ichigo shook his head, seeing Sōsuke had went into the kitchen, probably to see if they needed help. "Ah, yeah, well after…after the pho place…I haven't felt like going out. I don't think they found Bazz."

Uryū winced internally and squeezed Chad's hand. "Oh, yeah, I'm so sorry that happened, Ichigo, I didn't think…"

Ichigo smiled. "There's nothing to be sorry for, it was his fault, not yours. Just like the others. It wasn't anyone's fault except the ones that did it."

Uryū frowned, looking at him. "Well, I'm glad you seem to be doing okay with this…" he said softly.

"It has been a lot of work," Ichigo said. "If it weren't for Dr. Ukitake and Sōsuke…I don't think I could have gotten through a lot of this. It's been hard, and I'm not better yet, not all the way, but I'll get there. I…I just have to keep going," he said, smiling softly.

"I'm glad," Chad said, nodding.

"I see you guys finally decided to do something about the sexual tension you were exuding," Ichigo said smirking.

Uryū blushed immediately. Ichigo just smirked and then laughed as they looked up, seeing that Kisuke and his wife had come in with Noba and Ririn. Ichigo went over to see them, hugging them both in turn and talked for a while with each of them.

"Did you guys get a home yet?" he asked, frowning.

Ririn shook her head. "I don't know, we're staying with bucket hat over there at the safe house. Yoruichi is nice, though. We get along. She said something about maybe going with them because their only kid is their cat."

Ichigo nodded and looked at Noba. "What do you think?"

Noba nodded. "He's nice."

Ichigo looked up to see his father and his sisters had come in and were talking to some of the others. He stiffened without realizing. Noba put a hand on his shoulder.

"Brother, are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I just…I don't know how to act around them," he said softly. "They're my sisters, but they haven't been through what we went through."

Ririn sighed. "Just do what you feel, Ichigo," she said. "Let's go chat with Hana and Rin, I bet they've got a bunch to talk about."

For a while, the six sat down together away from everyone else and talked. Mostly, it was Rin and Hanataro telling them about their trip. Ichigo didn't talk much, but he enjoyed hearing about their stories and the things that had happened while they were gone. Eventually, they had food, everyone just walking around and mingling while they ate a buffet of various foods from different places. There was sushi and sashimi, tofu turkey which was really strange looking, different Australian foods that Harribel had made, and all sorts of sweets and random snack foods. After everyone had eaten, there was a gifting for those that brought something.

Sōsuke took his bag and passed out a gift to each of Ichigo's siblings, including Karin and Yuzu. He smiled as they all opened them. Noba had gotten a set of fantasy books that Ichigo said he would enjoy. Ririn had received a stuffed animal that looked like a cute chicken in a dress. Momo had gotten a lovely kimono with peach blossoms all over it. Nozomi had received a fancy journal and pen set. Hanataro had gotten a photo album so he could print his pictures from their trip and put them in it. The cover had sweet pea flowers on it. Rin received a large stuffed bear because Ichigo knew that he liked to sleep against something. Yuzu and Karin had each gotten a photo album that was empty, Karin's with a cover decorated with soccer balls, and Yuzu's decorated with tea sets. The first page had a paper that read "For Memories of a Family Remembered".

Everyone took turns hugging Ichigo and thanking him and Sōsuke for what they had given them. Everyone there, except perhaps Isshin and the girls, knew about Sōsuke's relationship with Ichigo. So when Sōsuke turned and showed a small package to Ichigo with a light blush on his cheeks everyone in the room started to giggle and whisper.

Sōsuke set the box down on the table and pulled Ichigo up to stand and then shimmied out of the sweater he was wearing in front of everyone. Ichigo's eyes went wide as he watched him start to unbutton the white shirt. He knew what he was doing, had he done something one of the times he'd left to go get food? He knew, he knew already, but he didn't want to think that he'd done something like that already. Everyone stared because this was not what they had expected. Except Harribel, of course, who had known that Sōsuke had this planned and she just stared and smiled. Her consorts glanced and saw that she was staring with a subtle smile and guessed she knew what was happening.

Sōsuke stopped with his shirt hanging open and smiled at Ichigo. "I told you already, that my body is my story. And you've added to my story, so I wanted to show you, and everyone, that another page is written," he said, pulling off his long sleeved shirt and pulling the tank top over his head to stand there naked from the waist up. Ichigo gasped in awe.

Sōsuke had taken his right arm which had the river wrapping around it but nothing else, and covered it with strawberry vines. They wound around his arm and up over his shoulder, and across his chest, where a large strawberry sat on a silver shield on the left side. The shield was teal in color, like the ribbon on his stomach, and above the shield, the words "Together" and below it "We Survive".

Ichigo reached up and touched it, feeling the heat because it was freshly done. His skin was still red and puffy around the inking. He looked up into Sōsuke's eye. "When…when did you do this…you didn't have this last night…" he whispered.

Sōsuke smiled. "Well, you didn't think it took all day today to pick up a few presents on the list you gave me, did you? This is why I was gone when you woke up. I left at about six, it took about seven hours for them to finish it. They were quite happy with the tip I gave them for finishing in time," he said smiling and watching as Ichigo traced fingers over the vines.

"I can't…I can't believe you did this…" he whispered. "But what if…what if…?"

Sōsuke leaned over and kissed Ichigo's forehead. "What if we don't stay together forever?" he said quietly. He motioned to the other arm. "They are my past, and you are my future. And just like them, you are a part of my story. You are as much to me as Byakuya, or Kisuke over there, or Gin. And it doesn't matter if we're together for another month, another year, or the rest of our lives. You're in my story now, forever."

Ichigo felt tears welling and almost started to cry until he shoved the box into his hands, grabbing his undershirt and slipping it on. No one there had missed the tattoo on Sōsuke's stomach, even those that hadn't know about his history. Ichigo pulled the paper off of it slowly and opened it to find two things. The first was a small envelope. He opened it and saw it was a coupon for a tattoo place, the one where Sōsuke had gone. The note read that it was him to use if he wanted to write his story upon his skin. The other was a pair of silver men's rings. Ichigo's eyes went wide and he looked up at Sōsuke.

"A promise," Sōsuke said with a smile. "Just a promise. A promise to stand with you as you heal. A promise to stay with you even when you want to scream and when you give me a black eye. A promise, just to be here for you and only you."

There was a collective gasp around the room and Ichigo nodded, pulling out the rings, taking the smaller one for himself and giving the larger to Sōsuke. Sōsuke smiled and kissed his cheek gently and began to put his shirt back on. There was a loud bang, and Ichigo and Sōsuke looked to see that Isshin had stormed out of the room. Ichigo frowned deeply, seeing his sisters looking after where he'd taken off. Ichigo put down the box and went after him. Sōsuke hesitated but followed, as did five other figures.

"What's your problem?" Ichigo asked when he got outside to see Isshin standing and smoking on one of the pylons near the house.

"My problem?" Isshin said, turning to look at Ichigo. "You were supposed to be staying with that bastard because he was safe. Because he wasn't going to take advantage of you. And now I find out that he is. He's too old for you. He was your professor, for kami's sake. Can't you see this? He's doesn't care about you! He's just using you!" Isshin was incensed, obviously.

Ichigo was taken aback, to be honest. "What? Why would you say that? You have no idea what Sōsuke has done for me."

"What Sōsuke has done for you? It looks like he's deciding to take advantage of a young boy, my son, who can't make a clear decision about his life right now because he doesn't understand how people like this guy work!" Isshin yelled.

"What? What?" he said again, not believing that this man who had been out of his life for ten years was trying to tell him the man he probably loved wasn't a good man.

"I'm still your father," Isshin said, looking at him. "This is not going to continue. You're coming with me and your sisters and we're going to your Uncle Kaien's in Tokyo, and you are leaving this…this…whatever he is."

Ichigo just stared in utter shock until he felt hands on his shoulders and saw it was Noba. He looked at the younger boy, his eyes already brimming with tears. He didn't want to leave them, and he didn't want to leave Sōsuke.

"No," Noba said, his voice, for the first time in a long time, strong and loud. Ichigo blinked and stared at him. "No, you don't get to tell him anything. You left. You let him go a long time ago. You left and never looked back, so sure that your plan would work. It didn't work and you never came back. No, you don't get to come back after ten years and tell your adult son what he can and can't do with his life. You don't get to be angry that he fell in love with someone that actually gave a damn and stepped in when he saw something wasn't right with him. You left. You lost the right to tell Ichigo anything."

Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing. Noba had never said something like this before. He looked to see Isshin staring with disbelief at the younger boy standing with Ichigo and then saw the others that had come out of the hell hole he'd been in and he realized something. He could never make up for lost time. He could never be the father that Ichigo should have had. He swallowed and put the cigarette out with a shaking hand and nodded.

"I know," he said quietly. "I know," he said.

With that, he turned and left, the girls running to catch up with him. Ichigo broke then, falling to his knees. Noba, though, knelt beside him and held him, and the others surrounded him and let Ichigo do the one thing he'd never done in front of them. They let him cry.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Gin and Kira stood outside the rehabilitation center with his sister Rangiku. She was wringing her hands. Gin put a hand on her shoulder. "Mah, calm down, what are you so worried over talking to her?"

"It's just, I haven't talked to her since…since…well…since the thing that drove her into the drugs," she said with a sigh.

Gin sighed deeply. "Rangi, you can't dance around it."

She looked at him. "I know, but it hurts that she wouldn't let me help her afterward and pushed us all away, and then she got into the drugs, and that awful place…"

"Well, now we deal with today," Gin said, ushering his reluctant sister into the building.

In a few minutes they were sitting at a visiting area table as Haineko came out. She smiled as she sat down, wearing the scrub looking clothes that they were issued here. She looked rough, of course, having been off the drugs for a while.

"I didn't expect you both," she said softly, and glanced at Kira. "Is this your new boyfriend, Gin?"

Gin nodded. "This is Izuru. He wanted to come meet you. We're…we're planning to get married next year, and I thought you should meet."

Haineko smiled. "Oh, that's wonderful!" she said. "I'm going to be out of here for it, and I want to be. I want to get off the drugs, and I have for a while," she said sighing. "I just…I was stuck."

"How did you get mixed up with those horrible people?" Rangiku asked softly. "I mean, what they did to those kids…"

Haineko sighed. "I felt so bad for those kids. I used…used to go down there and sleep on the bed with them sometimes, just…just because they needed someone sometimes. I would let them cry on me sometimes, and it made them feel better. I wanted to help them, but…I needed the drugs so bad to deal with what was going on in my head. I don't know why…I just couldn't think about the fact that they had the exact same thing happening to them that had happened to me."

She leaned over and patted Rangiku's hand. "I'm sorry I pushed you away, Rangi. I know you only wanted to help me. But after the rape, I just…I couldn't feel anything anymore. The drugs, they made it all go away. And then, when I could sleep with someone and get the drugs without having to pay for them, I felt…I was in control, you know. I was choosing to have sex, and I was getting something for it, it wasn't taken anymore, you know," she said, sighing deeply. "He…he took everything I was that night. And I never recovered."

Rangiku remembered it vividly. Her sister had called her from the hospital telling her something had happened but she was okay. When Rangiku pressed her to bring charges against the man who had assaulted her, Haineko pushed her away. She didn't want to go through it again, she said. She wasn't going to testify against him, what would it matter anyway? The more Rangiku tried to help, the more she pushed her away.

"If you knew it was wrong, why didn't you do something? Or call us?" Rangiku asked, clutching Haineko's hand in hers.

"Yoshi. I was scared to death of her. I thought…I thought she was going to kill anyone who tried to leave. Once you were in…you were in. She shot that one boy, and then she always shot those cats from the neighbor's house… She even had a flamethrower in the shed, and she burned a weasel that got into one of the back rooms alive with it. She was dangerous and you never knew what she was going to do," she said softly. "I couldn't just leave, none of us could."

"But now you're out," Gin said, smiling.

"Yeah, and they're in jail, and they're gonna stay, because me and the other girls that got pulled into that place, we have dirt on the bastards. And we're not gonna be quiet anymore."


	16. Unraveling the Chaos

A/N: Okay, for one thing, the Gin scene here at the beginning seems to come out of nowhere, for that I'm sorry. I've been editing and this connects with a couple parts in the revisions where Gin has called to talk to Sōsuke about meeting for this very encounter. Ichigo is also having a lot of thoughts on what he's feeling, and has become confused as to if he really loves Sōsuke or if he just loves that he's nice to him and makes him feel good. Ichigo's trying to work out the difference between love, lust, and all these things in his head.

Chapter Sixteen

Unraveling the Chaos

Sōsuke woke up when someone was beating on his door. After the incident at the holiday party the night before, Ichigo had frankly been exhausted and they had climbed into bed immediately. He blinked and rolled out of the bed and pulled on a robe as he yawned. He glanced at his phone to see it was already after ten in the morning. He went to the door, and opened it to find, to his surprise, Gin.

"Gin?" he said, looking between him and the petite blond man beside him. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Mah, did you forget, I said I was coming to see my sisters, remember?" Gin said, coming into the room and pulling the other man behind him.

"But…but you were supposed to call first…" Sōsuke said, closing the door behind them.

Gin smiled and sat down on the futon in the living room with a flourish. "I did, you didn't answer," he said smiling as Kira sat down demurely beside him. "This is Kira, remember, I told you I was with someone else."

"Yes, I remember, and you also had said some other things that aren't really appropriate at this time," Sōsuke said, hearing the covers rustling from his room. He was willing Ichigo to remain asleep. He didn't want him running into Gin right now.

"Sōsuke?" he heard and groaned inwardly as he looked to see Ichigo padding out of the bedroom wearing one of his button downs that he liked to sleep in. Ichigo rubbed his eyes and blinked at the two new people in the room.

"Oh, I see," Gin said, a smile splitting his face. "You didn't want me to know about this sweet thing you're keeping to yourself."

Sōsuke sighed, knowing where this was going to go very quickly. "No, Gin," he said firmly and put an arm around Ichigo's shoulders. "No."

"Aw, come on," Gin said, crossing his legs in his loose hakama he wore. "You didn't even ask him if he was interested."

"It isn't a good idea," Sōsuke said, feeling a ton of dread in his stomach.

"What's he talking about Sōsuke?" Ichigo asked, frowning. "And who are they?"

Sōsuke sighed. "Ichigo, this is Ichimaru Gin, whom I've told you about. And his new boyfriend, Kira, I believe," he said, trying not to let annoyance color his words at Gin right now.

Ichigo smiled and nodded at him. "Gin, yeah, you're the snake!"

Gin started to say something but smirked instead. "Yes, yes indeed."

"Snake?" Kira said beside him with a frown.

"Sōsuke dear, why don't you show my sweetie here what he means," Gin said.

Sōsuke sighed, slipping off the robe and laying it on the table beside him to stand in his sleep pants and the sleeveless undershirt. He held out his arm toward Kira where the brilliantly colored snake twined among the cherry blossoms. "The snake," he said with a sigh.

"Sōsuke! This is new!" Gin said, jumping up and coming to look at his arm where the new tattoo was starting to heal up. "That's insanely detailed, and you did it in one setting, didn't you?"

Ichigo was a little nervous with this especially when Gin was up and running his hands all over Sōsuke's arm. "Strawberry leaves and vines…for him…" he said smirking at Ichigo. "How sweet," Gin said, then saw that they ran under his shirt. "Hey, there's more," he muttered grabbing Sōsuke's shirt and pulling it over his head to both Ichigo and Sōsuke's surprise.

"Gin!" Sōsuke protested as he started using his fingers across the vines to where the final piece was on his chest.

"Oh, so lovely," Gin said, smirking then leaning forward and kissing the shield.

Ichigo growled under his breath loud enough that Gin heard him. Gin turned and smirked, not moving his hands off Sōsuke's chest. "Oh, he's such an adorable kitten, but he has teeth, huh," he muttered, kissing Sōsuke's collarbone now and grinning even wider at Ichigo's annoyance.

Sōsuke sighed and rolled his eyes, very much used to Gin's perverse pleasures in life. "Gin, please. Ichigo is not in the mood to deal with your incessant flirting."

"But I don't want to flirt, you remember why I brought Kira by…" he muttered, winking at him.

"And I said then I wasn't sure about that idea, and I know now I am sure the answer is no," Sōsuke said, pushing Gin back by his shoulders.

"What idea?" Ichigo asked, confused.

"I wanted to play with Sōsuke and Kira together," Gin said with a smirk.

"Play?" Ichigo said with a deep frown.

"Like a threesome, love," Gin said, sitting back down and pulling Kira into his arms again.

Ichigo blinked and looked between Sōsuke and Gin. "What? You were going to do that?" he asked Sōsuke.

"I told him I'd think about it, as I had not had a boyfriend since Gin and I broke up, and I was, at the time, feeling a bit frustrated sexually. But it isn't something I will consider now. As you can see Gin, we're together, and I don't feel it is fair to ask Ichigo after recent events to do something like that," Sōsuke said. He really wished Gin had not come by today.

Gin sighed. "Sōsuke, you are no fun. Kira here was dreaming about having your cock up his ass with mine, poor boy's dream will never come true."

Kira had blushed and lowered his head in embarrassment at Gin's crassness. "Gin, it's okay," he said quietly. "He doesn't want to do it, that's fine."

"Wait, what?" Ichigo said with a frown. "You…you want to do it with both them…inside at the same time?" he asked, surprised by the idea.

Kira looked up with a shy smile. "It…it's always been a fantasy of mine. And…Gin showed me pictures of Sōsuke, and…well…he's so beautiful… I don't want to cause problems," he said quietly. "We didn't know he had a boyfriend, so…so it really is okay."

Ichigo started. Was that what he was? Sōsuke's boyfriend? He blinked and looked at the promise band on his finger and Sōsuke's.

"I'm your boyfriend?" he said quietly and looked at Sōsuke.

Sōsuke put his arm back around him and hugged him against him. "Of course, you're my boyfriend, what else would you be?"

Ichigo frowned again and shook his head. "I've…I've never been someone's boyfriend."

"Well that's unfortunate, you're a sumptuous piece of ass if I've ever seen one," Gin said with a smirk.

"Gin!" Sōsuke said, sighing. "Please, Ichigo's been through enough recently, he doesn't need to be brought into your perverse fantasies, Gin. Why are you even here?"

"I told you, I was visiting Rangiku and Haineko. She's in the rehab center right now," Gin said sighing deeply.

"Haineko?" Ichigo said, looking up at him suddenly.

Gin looked at him. "You know her?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, she was always so sweet to us, and she took care of us sometimes. I always liked when she crawled into bed with me and Momo, she smelled nice most the time. I felt bad for her, she always was trying to help us. She was scared of Yoshi, they all were," he said thoughtfully.

"Wait, you were at that house?" Gin said, brows creasing and looking up to Sōsuke. "You were one of those kids they had?"

"He's not a kid, he's nineteen," Sōsuke said with a sigh, knowing that Gin had a huge problem with anyone coming near crossing the line of being with someone underage. "He was adopted there when he was about nine, and he'd been there about ten years when everything happened. He's been staying with me…and well…we developed a connection in that time," Sōsuke said, running a hand over Ichigo's head fondly. "So you can see why it is not the best idea to be making overtures at this time."

"It doesn't bother me," Ichigo said softly, looking up at Sōsuke under hooded eyes.

Sōsuke blinked. "I…Ichigo, what…no, it's not a good idea. I know you're still experimenting with these things, but…"

Ichigo glanced at Kira who was watching him intently. "He's cute," he said softly. "And…I…I might like playing with someone else."

Sōsuke closed his eyes and resisted the overwhelming urge to put his foot down and say that it was not going to happen. He had to be careful because he couldn't tell Ichigo what to do. He had to make sure to let Ichigo make the choices about his own sexuality and what he wanted to do with it. And if he was interested in playing with others, then he would take him seriously.

"How about we wait a bit," Sōsuke said, smiling gently at Ichigo. "Gin and Kira won't be going home yet, he's staying for a few weeks, at least that is what he told me when he called before, and it will give you a chance to get to know them a bit and then we can decide if that's what you want to do."

"Why don't you come here a second, though," Gin said smiling and motioning Ichigo over to him.

Sōsuke glared at Gin but Ichigo walked over to him, and Sōsuke noticed that his shirt barely covered his ass when he moved. It was hot and sexy and now Gin was whispering in Ichigo's ear. He couldn't hear what he was saying but Ichigo's face started to redden immediately. Sōsuke crossed his arms and watched him. He saw Ichigo nod slightly and Gin slid a hand under his shirt to rest it on the swell of his ass before whispering to him again. Ichigo again reddened a little and nodded, and this time, Gin grabbed him and pulled him onto his lap.

"I think he likes me," Gin said, smirking at Sōsuke.

Sōsuke sighed and shook his head. Ichigo was red faced and he saw what Gin was doing, but Ichigo was in control of the situation. The one thing he didn't fear from Gin was him taking anything without permission. Gin's hand slid over Ichigo's thigh, rubbing up and down over it. Ichigo was watching Kira, though. Ah, that was it, Sōsuke saw. He was wanting to see what Kira did when he was being flirted with by Gin. Kira's face had blushed and he was watching Gin's every move, his tongue darting out now and then to lick his lips as he watched. Gin whispered something else to Ichigo, and Ichigo reached over and touched Kira's face gently, and Kira turned and sucked his fingers into his mouth, reaching up to hold them with his hands as he sucked on each of them in turn.

Ichigo gasped, surprised by such a motion actually happening. He didn't know what to think of that. Gin's hands on his legs felt nice too, but what felt really nice was that he had asked permission before he did anything, even touching his hands. Ichigo wouldn't have thought that the way he acted Gin would have done such a thing, but he didn't stray from his permissions. First, he'd asked Ichigo to take his hands. Then, he'd asked if he could put his hand under his shirt on his back. Then he'd asked if he could put him on his lap and touch his thighs. Then he said if he wanted to touch Kira, he could, that Kira would like to suck on his fingers. He had no idea how Gin knew that's what Kira wanted, but he had.

"Hmm, Sōsuke, I think he likes the attention, he's dripping down onto my legs," Gin said, fingers still dancing up and down the inside of Ichigo's thighs gently.

"Ichigo, are you okay?" Sōsuke said, moving to sit on the arm of the futon and looking at him. He nodded slowly. "Are you sure?"

"I am, it feels nice, that there are other…other nice touches…that you aren't the only one…" he whispered wriggling on Gin's lap, and Sōsuke could see the obvious bump under the front of his shirt where he was more than a little aroused.

"Are you sure that you want to do something like this?" Sōsuke asked, frowning. "I don't want you to feel like you have to…"

Ichigo turned and glared at him. "I can make a choice on my own, don't start telling me what to do like Isshin did last night! I'm a damn adult, and if I want to fuck every man I meet I will!"

Sōsuke was taken aback a bit and a look of hurt crossed his face enough that Ichigo immediately regretted it. He turned and cupped Sōsuke's face and his look softened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, I mean, I know what I want to do and what I don't want to do."

Ichigo also had to find out for sure that his love for Sōsuke was more than sex. He thought he loved him but if he felt the same way after "playing" with Gin and Kira, then he'd know that it wasn't really love, but lust twisted up in his head. If he still felt the same way about Sōsuke then he'd know. He knew it probably wasn't something Jūshirō would have approved of, but he couldn't help it. And he was curious about what drew Gin and Kira to Sōsuke.

"I wanna see you do what he wants, Sōsuke," Ichigo said, glancing over to Kira who was still sucking his fingers and watching him.

Sōsuke glanced at Gin who nodded at him. "Okay," he whispered. "Why don't you prepare him for us?" Sōsuke said, kissing Ichigo's ear gently.

Kira was already up and stripping his clothes off before he could say anything else, showing a well-toned and pale body. "You mean…do the thing with my fingers like you did..." Ichigo said softly, looking from Sōsuke to Kira.

"Yeah," Sōsuke said, and stood up, opening the side table and grabbing a bottle and giving it to Ichigo. He nodded and Kira crawled onto the sofa, leaning over the back and watching Ichigo as he moved behind him, sliding his hands over his ass slowly. Ichigo looked at Sōsuke who was watching him intently as was Gin.

Ichigo flicked the bottle open and put the lube on his fingers before he slid one down and against Kira without notice. Kira gasped a bit and wriggled as Ichigo pushed into him with a wide eyed expression. He began interested, though, and quickly worked in three fingers and was feeling around inside him. He felt something, and he brushed it and Kira moaned loudly. That was the spot, he thought to himself, feeling it again and pushing on it. Kira was about to come out of his mind, though. He stepped back and Sōsuke sat down against the arm, pulling Kira over as he pulled himself free and slid a condom on. Ichigo guessed he'd done that when he got the lube. He kneeled down and watched as Kira lowered himself down slowly onto Sōsuke and Ichigo's hand went to his own throbbing arousal.

He'd never watched before, of course. But sitting there, seeing Sōsuke's cock disappear inside Kira, he nearly came then and there. Then he looked to see Gin moving toward them as Kira settled with a flushed look to his face as he straddled Sōsuke and leaned over him, writhing just a bit. Sōsuke held his arms around Kira's waist and leaned his head back as Kira hovered over him then Gin was free of his own pants and pushing his cock in behind Sōsuke's.

"Will…will that fit…" Ichigo whispered, watching intently as Gin pushed forward, inching all the way inside beside Sōsuke. Ichigo's eyes bugged and he looked to see that Kira was gripping the arm of the sofa and biting his lip.

Ichigo didn't think, he just got up and moved to the end of the couch and climbed up on the arm, picking up his shirt and presenting himself to Kira's slack mouth. Sōsuke looked up in a bit of surprise but Kira leaned up and sucked Ichigo into his mouth feverishly. Ichigo's eyes went wide as Gin began thrusting into him from behind, pushing him forward onto him and Kira's eyes kept locking on him. They were open and blown wide with desire. He was moaning and sucking and Ichigo felt himself go over so hard he had to hold onto the back of the couch to stay standing. Kira didn't move away, just sucked him until he was dry. Ichigo slipped backward just as Kira's face contorted in pleasure and he moaned loudly. Gin made very little noise as he and Sōsuke both found their fall at nearly the same time.

Ichigo blinked as Kira reached up and grabbed Ichigo by the face and started kissing him. Ichigo returned it, tangling tongues with the blond, tasting himself on him. It was strange but at the same time arousing. Gin had already sat back, grabbing tissues from the side table and cleaning himself off before handing some to Sōsuke. Sōsuke looked at him and pulled him into a side embrace and whispered.

"I guess you enjoyed watching?" he whispered, kissing Ichigo's jaw. Ichigo nodded and looked at the completely blissed out blond who had gone to snuggling with Gin.

Ichigo looked at Gin and Kira. Kira had pulled his pants back on and was kissing Gin on the neck and whispering thanks to him for letting him do something like that. Ichigo then looked at Sōsuke, sitting back, having pulled his clothes up again. He slid into Sōsuke's lap and snuggled into his neck. It was different, the feelings he had for Sōsuke and for the others. Gin and Kira had been pleasurable, and fun, but Sōsuke made his heart flutter.

"I love you, Sōsuke," he said softly, and he meant it.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Isshin sat in the bar with a scotch and soda. He didn't notice when someone sat down beside him and he didn't care. He'd left that shinigami agent back at the house with the girls, but he had to get out.

"You look depressed, man," a voice beside him said.

He looked over to see an unfamiliar man sit down beside him at the bar. He was blue haired and had a leather coat on. Isshin, himself dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt nodded. "Yeah, I think I fucked up," he muttered.

"Girl trouble?" the guy asked. "Well, I guess I shouldn't assume that, let's say, partner trouble?" he said, ordering himself a jack and coke.

"Nah, son," he said with a sigh. He nodded to him. "Isshin."

"Grimm," the other man said. "Well, Grimmjow but everyone calls me Grimm. Tell me, what did you do to fuck up so much that you're in here drowning your sorrows?" he said, sipping his drink.

"I screwed up and I hadn't seen him in a decade," he said, sighing. "I mean, how could I have decided to try and tell him anything after ten years."

Grimmjow nodded. "Well, I guess it depends on what it was about," Grimmjow said with a thoughtful look. "I mean, and why. If you just wanna control him, then that's not cool, but if you were trying to do what you thought was right…"

"It's just, he's with this guy. And he's older than him, right, like not a whole lot, but he's only nineteen, so someone that's twenty-five is a lot older. I mean, six years, I guess it isn't much, but after what he's been through…" Isshin said with a sigh. "I just…I missed most of his life, and I want the best for him now, but I ended up alienating him even further."

Grimmjow frowned, taking a better look at the man beside him. "Isshin, you said?" he asked. Isshin nodded. "You're Ichigo's pop, ain't ya?" he asked, sipping his drink again.

Isshin looked at the man. "How do you know my son?"

"I work at the school, I'm a coach. Hadn't had the boy yet, but my girl Nel and Harribel were helping Sōsuke figure out everything, met him a couple times, he's a good boy," Grimmjow said with a nod of his head.

Isshin nodded. "You're friends with this Sōsuke Aizen then?"

Grimmjow shrugged. "Not really, I mean, I know him, but he's kinda the type to keep to himself. We got him to come out a couple times to our bonfires in the fall, but he was always quiet and kinda hung out."

Isshin nodded. "I just…after what Ichigo went through…I don't want him making a bad choice. He's fragile and broken and he's not well," Isshin said softly.

"Well there's your problem," Grimmjow said, sipping his drink and looking over at him. "You obviously forgot who your son is."

Isshin frowned and shook his head. "What do you mean?"

Grimmjow smiled. "That kid's something else from what I hear. Nothing kept him from doing what he thought was right. He stayed there, man. He stayed there because he wanted to keep those others from getting hurt. He knew he'd be taken advantage of, beaten, raped, sold, all of that, but he had to stop the others from getting hurt. He coulda walked away a lot of times. He didn't because he's one fucking strong kid. He took it, everything that bitch Yoshi did to him and more because he put himself between her and those other kids who weren't as strong."

Isshin frowned and looked into the clinking ice cubes in his glass. "But he was so little when they took him. He was ten. And…and they were doing such horrible things to him…"

"Man, that kid's got metal in his backbone," Grimmjow said, arching a brow at him. "Those other boys, Ho and Ban, they broke, man. Those poor kids may never fully recover. And Ichigo went through it longer. What they did, that would break the strongest person."

Isshin sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I just…I wanted my son again, and he's…he's not the boy I left."

"Of course not, he grew up," Grimmjow said, shrugging. "That kid's long gone. He grew up real quick there, learning to take care of those other kids. Listen, he didn't even fucking go to school, do you even understand that? They snuck books in and hid them, and he not only taught himself well enough to get into college, but also taught those other kids. He did that while he was spending his days sneaking upstairs to take food and feed six other kids, going without when he had to do so. He taught himself everything he needed to know. All the while, risking being beaten or worse because he knew he couldn't let them wilt away in that basement, not just him, but those others."

Isshin swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah. I just…I'm guilty of so much…and…"

"Look, man. I don't know you or even him much more than just what Nel's said around our place, but I know this much, if you care about him, stop trying to make up for lost time. He don't need the man who left ten years ago anymore. He needs a father for the person he is now, not a father for the kid he was ten years ago," Grimmjow said, slamming back the rest of his drink and dropping the bills on the bar. "Good luck, man," he said and headed out of the bar.

Isshin sat there for a long time and thought over what he'd said. Was it really as simple as that?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Sōsuke came into the living room a couple days later and handed Ichigo his phone. Ichigo looked up and frowned and Sōsuke nodded so he'd take it.

"Hello?" Ichigo said, confused a bit.

"Ichigo, um, its Isshin, I…uh, wanted to talk to you, if it's okay with you. I talked to Sōsuke a bit, and I…I was hoping you'd talk to me," Isshin stammered, and Ichigo could hear Yuzu and Karin in the background whispering encouragement to him.

Ichigo scowled at Sōsuke who shrugged at him. "Yeah, unless you're going to me that I don't know what I want again."

"I'm sorry about that, I just…I was surprised. I thought that you wouldn't want someone to be with like that after what had happened. I thought you'd take a lot more time to get over it and I made the mistake that you were still that little boy I left ten years ago," he said softly, sighing slightly.

Ichigo frowned again but tucked his legs under his body and hummed. "Yeah, well, I'm not that little boy."

"Yeah, I know, and I have to come to terms with that. I know that this is hard for you, too. But I thought, maybe, we could have dinner over here tomorrow. Yuzu would like to cook for you, and maybe we can talk about things and how this is going to work. I mean, Yuzu and Karin are trying to decide what they want, and they both want to stay here in Karakura so they can get to know their brother. And…and I'd like to get to know my son again, and my daughters," Isshin said, and Ichigo could hear the tightness in his voice.

Ichigo looked at Sōsuke who smiled encouragingly. "Can Sōsuke come?"

"Of course, if you and he both want him to come," Isshin said.

Ichigo was quiet for a long time. "Okay, I'll come over. I'm not sure if Sōsuke will come with me or not, but he might."

"Okay son, that's all I ask, thanks."

Ichigo nodded. "Okay, see you tomorrow, Pop," he said, and touched the end call button.

Sōsuke slid down beside him on the sofa and hugged him gently. "I'm proud of you, Ichigo," he said.

Ichigo nodded and snuggled into Sōsuke's arms. He was scared and he didn't know yet if Sōsuke should go with him or not.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

_Dinner with Kurosakis all present tomorrow night. Shinigami agent still in house._

Inaba grinned. So they'd all be there. He tucked the phone back into his pocket and glanced at his duffel bag. There were two handguns, a baseball bat, and several sets of the big zip ties. He was going to make them pay. He was going to show Isshin Kurosaki what his son had become, and he was going to show the fucking slut what he was good for and nothing more. He'd have his revenge for good this time. No more botched jobs and depending on others to do what he should do himself. He should have put a gun to the fucking brat's head and ended him beside his mother. He should have tracked down those girls and done the same to them. And then he should have figured out that Isshin hadn't died so he could watch him suffer.

He smirked, looking out the window at the stolen car in the parking lot. They wouldn't know what happened, and then he'd have them all. He'd play the game with the police when they got there, telling them he wanted transportation in exchanged for hostages. He didn't have any plans to give them up for anything, and he'd leave them all in a bloody pool on the floor, except of course Isshin. He'd make him watch as he murdered all three of his children in front of his eyes. Inaba's smile grew wider. But maybe not until he'd had his fun with them first…


	17. Breaking Chaos

Chapter Seventeen

Breaking Chaos

Sōsuke smiled as Ichigo fretted over what he was going to wear to dinner with his family. He looked at him with a keen eye, watching for any negative effects from the encounter with Gin and Kira. That pair were still in town, from what he understood, they'd picked up a long term hotel room for an indeterminate amount of time. Sōsuke knew that Gin was often crass, vulgar, and loud, but more than anything he loved his sisters and would do anything in the world for them. So, for him to leave before he knew they were both okay was unheard of. Sōsuke had loved that about him, the complete dedication.

But when he'd shown up with Kira, he had still worried. And now, as he watched Ichigo move about life as though the encounter had just been normal. What he worried about, of course, was that Ichigo was used to sexual advantages being taken of him and going about as though nothing was wrong. He worried that Ichigo might feel that Sōsuke, and Gin for that matter, had taken advantage of him when they shouldn't have. Jushiro hadn't said anything to him that indicated that Ichigo had come out of the encounter worse than going in, but then he knew Jushiro wasn't going to tell him what they talked about every afternoon. He just knew that whatever Jushiro was doing with Ichigo was helping him more than he had hoped.

"Ichigo, um, we never talked about what happened with Gin," he said tentatively as Ichigo changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He looked up at him with a frown.

Sōsuke sat slowly on the bed, their bed now, and looked at him as a confused look crossed his face.

"I don't know what there is to talk about, Sōsuke," Ichigo said, coming and sitting on his lap. Ichigo looped his arms around Sōsuke's neck and kissed his cheek. "It was fun, that was it."

"But…I don't understand why you wanted to do something like that so soon. Gin would have backed off if you had said no," Sōsuke said, reaching up and brushing stray orange strands out of his face.

Ichigo nodded. "I…I guess I should be honest with you about why, I mean, I just…things are all fucked up in my head. This thing, between us, it…it feels so weird. I thought I loved Mabashi. I thought that was love. I thought that love was something that could hurt and that that's just the way it was. I thought that love was…was…fucking nicely."

Sōsuke frowned at him and looked concerned. "Fucking nicely?" he queried.

"Yeah, you know, not hurting me. Fucking…er, having sex where it felt good. When…when Mabashi had said he loved me, when he actually admitted it, we were together, but it was nice, and he wasn't mean and hurting me. So…I wondered if I could tell the difference, you know, between love and fuck…er…sex," Ichigo said, staring down and flushing a bit. "I know it doesn't make sense, and Jushiro thought it was a bit of an unusual way to figure things out, but…"

"But he said that it was your choice on how you went about figuring things out, didn't he?" Sōsuke said, smiling gently at him.

"Yeah, and…I had this idea…if I felt the same way about Gin or Kira, after we, you know, did that, then I wasn't in love with you like I thought. But I didn't. I mean, it was hot, and nice, and watching you and Gin fuck him together, that was amazing…and I wouldn't mind that again…but that isn't the point. I just…I know that what I feel for you is here," Ichigo said, putting his hand on Sōsuke's chest gently. "It isn't about sex, though I really, really like that part."

Sōsuke smiled and leaned over and kissed Ichigo's nose on the tip. "You are a little minx in bed, you know," he said softly, sliding a hand down between Ichigo's knees and slowly up the inside of his jean-clad thighs.

Ichigo's eyes went wide and he blushed immediately. "Sōsuke, I just got dressed, we have to be there in like two hours…" he whined.

"Two hours, that's such a long time," Sōsuke said, leaning forward and nipping at Ichigo's collarbone. "We can go take a shower together, then you won't be a mess after we're done…"

Ichigo started to protest but growled instead, sliding off Sōsuke's lap and grabbing his hand. "Come on, then, you know that it takes almost an hour when we shower together, and that's after we've already gone at it in here," he said softly, his eyes fluttering in a way that made Sōsuke bite his lip.

"Oh, really?" he muttered, and moved quickly to grab him and throw him over his shoulder.

"Sōsuke!" he screeched and slapped Sōsuke's back. "Dammit!"

Sōsuke giggled, sitting Ichigo down on the large double sink. "Oh, you're so cute when you're mad," he muttered, pulling the t-shirt off and beginning to nip and suck at Ichigo's collarbone.

"Ugh, Sōsuke, stop it, you're…dammit…" he muttered, squirming already. "Just turn on the shower already. You aren't doing me in cold water."

Sōsuke reached over and turned on the water before shucking his clothes then sliding Ichigo off the counter. He slid his jeans off and before he could kick them away, they were entwined in each other's arms.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

To say that Isshin Kurosaki was nervous was an understatement. He was worried and he was feeling like there was nothing in the world he could ever do to make up for the horrible way he had acted. He had wanted it to be just him and the girls, but he'd realized after he got off the phone the night before, he couldn't do this alone. He'd called his cousin and asked if he could come down for the weekend from Tokyo. Kaien had of course agreed to come and help out. Kaien knew that Isshin was trying his best, but he knew also how hard it was going to be for him to figure out how to be a father after so long living on nothing but revenge fantasy and hatred for the man that murdered his wife.

Yuzu had been busy in the kitchen all day already when Kaien got there and stepped out of his small car. He knew that the girls were going to stay in Karakura as long as their brother stayed there. That was fine with him. He and Miyoko had spent ten years being mother and father to the girls, and now they had a brother and a father they needed to get to know. He smiled to himself as knocked and was let in by Karin. He smelled the food wafting through the house already. It was about an hour before Ichigo would come to the dinner. He wandered into the kitchen and saw Yuzu had made several different dishes and several cakes and rolls to go with them. He smiled, going back into the living room where Karin was playing on her DS.

"How's it going?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Ah, you know, old goat face is beside himself, but other than that, Yuzu has just been cooking her brains out," Karin said shrugging. "But that's to be expected. Pop screwed up the other day pretty bad with him. He knows it. I think he's ready for whatever Ichigo says tonight."

Kaien nodded. He'd spent two hours on the phone with Isshin after the holiday party. Mostly he'd let the older man talk, but he had told him a few things he'd learned over the last ten years of taking care of the twins, and he had hoped it had helped at least a little.

Kaien looked up to see the big Shinigami agent, Zaraki. "I'll be out on the front porch for a bit. I'd like to keep an eye out on things outside," he said with a nod and headed out onto the front porch.

It was another half an hour before the door opened and Zarki let Ichigo into the house. Ichigo stopped at the door and leaned up and kissed Sōsuke on the cheek.

"You sure you're okay by yourself?" Sōsuke asked.

"I'm sure. You go on and check in on Kisuke and the others. I'll be fine here, besides, with that mountain outside, what could possibly happen here?" he said with a wide grin. "Besides, I think…it should be a thing between me and then, you know?"

Sōsuke smiled and nodded. "Okay, give me a call if you want me to come and pick you up, okay?"

Ichigo nodded and waved as he headed back out to his car and Ichigo came in nervously. "Hey," he said nervously as Kaien and Isshin stood up when he had come in.

"Um, hey, son," Isshin said, smiling. "Uh, Yuzu has been cooking all day, so let's make her happy and eat her food while it's hot."

They all moved into the dining room where the table was positively loaded with various foods. Yuzu smiled at them. "Ichi-nii, I didn't know what you liked, so I made a lot of different things."

Ichigo nodded. "It all looks so wonderful," he said, smiling as he sat down.

Everyone dug into the food and Ichigo was amazed at what a good cook his sister was. He complimented her on several things and asked her what other things were that he'd never encountered. He tried to avoid talking about things that would bother them. As they finished, and the girls cleared off the table, Kaien stood up and nodded to Isshin.

"Girls, why don't we let your father and Ichigo talk, okay?" he said with a smile.

Yuzu began to protest but then nodded and left with Karin and Kaien to go sit in the living room and gave Isshin and Ichigo some privacy.

"Son…I…" Isshin began.

"Stop, first, I…I need to tell you some things, and you…you are just going to have to choose if you think you can handle them. If you can't, then we both move on, on our own. But…but if you think you can handle them, then…then…we'll see what happens," Ichigo said, turning the silver and black ring on his finger thoughtfully.

Isshin nodded, knowing that more than anything, he needed to give Ichigo space. "Of course."

"Okay, so, the thing is, I remember. I remember you. I remember Karin and Yuzu. I remember everything about them from the time I was with them. I used to tell stories to Noba and Ririn and the others, I used to tell them about you and momma. I used to tell them how beautiful she was, and how she would hold me when I cried, and how you were funny and would make her face light up in laughter. I would tell them how the girls used to laugh and giggle at the things you did. They…they were their bedtime stories, you know?" Ichigo said, his fingers twisting around each other and not looking up. "I…I didn't want to say I remembered when I met you. I thought…I thought that there was no way that person I remembered would want me anymore."

Isshin felt tears begin to well in his eyes but he nodded. "And, well, I felt like I was worthless. You have to understand…I was thirteen when…when Mabashi took me for the first time. I thought…I thought that everything I was had been destroyed. And then, I watched as the others, the ones I was taking care of, putting to bed with stories of my mom's smiling face, were drug upstairs and had the same thing happen to them. I…I couldn't take it. I couldn't watch them cry, you understand that? I couldn't. I had to stop it."

Ichigo stopped, looking toward the window. "I figured out that if I stepped in between Yoshi and whoever she came downstairs to get, if I said something, if I mouthed off, she'd get mad, and she'd take me instead. Not all the time, because sometimes whoever it was wanted a girl, and then I'd just end up getting the shit knocked out of me." Ichigo snorted. "I never lost a tooth, you know, I ended up getting them all knocked out before they fell out on their own," he said softly. "She was more careful with my grown up teeth though, because she said if I was ugly, no one would want to fuck me."

Isshin felt his hands clench under the table but he still didn't say anything, letting Ichigo talk. "I…I wanted to learn, but she faked all our school stuff, because she wasn't going to let us out of the house. We were bruised and beaten all the time. There would have been questions that she couldn't pay off or blackmail so she had the books sent. I'd take them, and then we'd learn things together. It wasn't easy, because there were gaps, you know. Stuff that I had missed or books I hadn't gotten to before she burned them. But I taught the others. I wasn't going to let us rot down there in that basement. We played games, we did things to occupy ourselves. It wasn't a lot, but I kept them as happy as I could. I stole food and medicine and bandages and all sorts of things. And I got caught a lot, too. But I had to do it," he said, chewing his lip a lot. "And she'd do things to us when she caught us. I…I know Uryu knows about the guns, but she'd fuck…" Ichigo paused. "She'd put other things in us. And then she'd laugh if we cried out. This one time she had this big…big purple jelly dildo…and she made Ririn suck on it until she was choking on it and crying, saying she needed to learn how to deep throat a proper cock if she was going to be her slut."

Ichigo sighed. "It didn't matter what it was. She did it to humiliate us. She wanted us to be too afraid to ever leave, and too ashamed of ourselves to walk away even when we were old enough to do it. She did something horrible to Ho and Ban, and I still don't know what it was, but it broke their minds. And as fucked up as it is, if it weren't for Mabashi, she would have broke my mind the same way," he said, running a hand over his head with a sigh.

"I'm still figuring out this, okay? Dr. Ukitake and I meet every afternoon," he said, staring at his hands again as they twisted together on the table. "I…I have a lot to figure out. I mean, I just dove into a fucking threesome the other day to find out if I was so fucked up in my head that I thought I loved Sōsuke because he was nice when we had sex."

Isshin frowned a bit but didn't comment. "I know," Ichigo said. "I know. But…Sōsuke, he understands this part, and I don't expect you to understand it, okay?" Ichigo sighed, looking up at him. "I…need to control me. I need to know that I can choose, okay? If I want to sleep with someone, I can, and if I don't want to, I don't have to feel like I have to. It…it hasn't felt safe before, and I'm trying to get to the point where every time I lay with Sōsuke that he's going to change and hurt me."

Isshin supposed that it made sense in a way. Ichigo chewed idly on his thumb. "See, Dr. Ukitake told me that a lot of times, people like me have their sex lives kind of programed by their early experiences, and so that becomes their safety zone. For me, it was all violence and pain, and they would make me orgasm, so the pleasure and the pain became all wound up together. I…I need to feel in control but at the same time, I need it. I need to feel someone sleeping against me, and I need to be able to have that release, because that was all I could have that was good at the end of the day," he said, sighing. "It…it doesn't make sense, in a way, to spend like seven years being used on a regular basis to still want to have sex, but…but Dr. Ukitake said that not all survivors avoid sex, and that a lot of them seek it out. Sōsuke did that too, he slept with lots of guys, both top and bottom, and he said he felt like he was searching for something to fill a hollow hole in his stomach. I…I felt like that too, but Sōsuke…Sōsuke can take what I give him."

Isshin nodded slowly, starting to understand things a bit more now. "I get so angry sometimes, and I scream at him, and I tell him to leave me alone, and then sometimes I just want to sit in his lap and be held for hours on end without talking at all, and other times, I just want to throw him on the bed and have sex with him for hours at a time. He's been through it himself, and he understands the anger and the pain and the need and everything. It is so much more than just someone taking advantage of me. He's helping me, taking care of me, in ways that no one else can."

Ichigo stopped talking and sat there with his hands on the table in front of him. He looked up when Isshin reached both his hands over and put them on top of his. He knew he had to do this right. "Son, I'm sorry about how I acted. I…was more mad at myself than anyone else. I…I left and I never looked back, Noba was right. I shouldn't have done things the way I did, but I was so angry. I was so riddled with guilt and pain and grief, that I could only see one thing, and that was taking revenge on your mother's murderer," he said softly. "I want to be in your life. With you, and Sōsuke, the girls, and I want to make a family and I want to get to know the Ichigo in front of me now, because the Ichigo I left ten years ago did this really annoying thing and grew up into a man."

Ichigo smiled, nodding at him. "I would like that, pop," he said softly.

"Well, if that isn't just the sweetest thing?" came a voice from the doorway to the dining room.

Ichigo and Isshin both snapped their heads to the side with complete shock and terror. Inaba was standing in the doorway with both Yuzu and Karin standing in front of him, their hands ziptied together in front of them and cloth gags tied on their mouths. He was holding a gun against Karin's temple and smiling at them both. Ichigo and Isshin both stood slowly.

"Isshin, good to see you, you know, you fooled me that night at Ryo's when I took your boy back and fucked him senseless, you were watching me finger him right there in the room and didn't do a damn thing about it, some father you are," Inaba said, shoving Yuzu forward, but holding the gun against Karin's head.

"Inaba," Isshin said. "What do you want? Where's Kaien?"

"Oh, the other guy? He's tied up in the living room, and don't count on that big agent. I'm not sure, but I might have killed him, I had to hit him three times with a baseball bat to get that big bastard to fall down. He's tied up inside the door too, just in case. Now, take those chairs, Isshin, and line up four there against the wall, or this little feisty girl gets her brains splattered," Inaba said, pushing into Karin's temple hard enough to make her grunt and frown.

Isshin stood up and pulled the chairs around like he'd asked. Inaba motioned with the gun to him and Isshin sat down. He motioned to Yuzu to sit, and then Ichigo. He reached in his pocket and tossed a few zip ties to Isshin.

"Tie the girl's legs to the chair, and tie Ichigo's hands. Then tie your feet to your chair," he instructed, keeping the gun on Karin the whole time.

When he was done, Inaba pushed Karin over to sit in the chair and then zip tied Isshin's hands together, and secured Karin's legs to her chair. Inaba stood back and smiled. "Now, Isshin, we've got a lot to talk about, don't we?"

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Uryu was surprised when his phone rang with Ichigo's ringtone on it. He frowned, thinking that Ichigo had been at dinner with his father, and hoped nothing had happened between them. He answered it and his eyes went wide. He pulled it away from his ear and muted the call.

"Chad, quick, I need your phone!" he called, running from the living room into the bedroom that they had started sharing.

Chad turned, handing it to him with a frown as Uryu started dialing frantically. "We have to get in the car too," he said and took off again. Chad followed without question, of course.

"Kisuke Urahara," came the voice on the other end.

"Urahara, Ichigo's in trouble," he said frantically as Chad started the car. "Where are you?"

"Meet me at the station, what's wrong?" he asked, voice serious now.

"Listen," he said, turning the speaker phone on his phone and Chad's.

"…so you know, I had to do something about the person that completely ruined my entire operation," came a voice from Uryu's phone.

"It's coming from Ichigo's phone, well the watch, anyway," Uryu explained, both to Chad and Kisuke on the other line.

"Inaba, what are you trying to accomplish here? Let them go, I'm the one that was turning on you, they had nothing to do with this," came Isshin's voice through the tinny speaker phone.

Kisuke was listening still and Uryu could hear him getting in a car and other voices in the background. "Keep the line open Uryu, and use the other phone to record if you can, I'll meet you at the station."

Uryu nodded, hanging up on Kisuke and flicking to the recorder on Chad's phone. He was going to record everything because they had to help Ichigo, and now the others.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo chewed his lip, hoping that he had managed to get the right buttons on his watch without looking. As weird as it sounded, he'd actually practiced for that very thing, doing things without looking at it. He watched, scared at what Inaba had planned.

"So what is your plan anyway? You could have gotten away clean already," Isshin said frowning.

"Ah, yeah, I thought I could. But you…you sneaky bastard…you ruined most my contacts along the way, and I only had one person left I could trust here in Karakura. Yammy was always a good boy, even when I was paying for his blow and hookers when he was fifteen years old," he said, walking past them all.

The phone rang on the counter and Inaba grinned. "Hm, seems they figured out something was going on," he said, picking up the phone.

"Inaba," came the voice on the other end. "I'm Kisuke Urahara, and we're willing to negotiate for the release of the Kurosakis."

"I'm sure you are," Inaba said, smiling. "I want a car, a clear route to the airport, and a private jet fueled and ready. I take one hostage with me to the airport, and release the last one when I'm on the plane," he said with a smile.

Kisuke swallowed. "Okay, I'll need sometime…"

"You have an hour, otherwise, I'll put a bullet in each one's brain," Inaba said, hanging up the phone.

Isshin glared at him. "You won't let us go, will you?"

"Well, see, I'm going to do something, alright," he said, stepping forward and grabbing Ichigo's shrit collar and hauling him up to his feet.

"Put him down!" Isshin growled.

"No, see, you are going to suffer, Isshin. That's what this is about. So, I heard your little heartfelt talk as I was coming in, but the truth is, your son is nothing but a fucking faggot cunt, and he always will be, you know that, don't you?" Inaba said, pulling him up to his face.

Ichigo was scared of course, but nothing this guy could do would scare him. Yoshi had done this and more to him. "Fuck you, you fucking rapist bastard."

"Rapist? I've never fucked anyone who didn't want it," Inaba said, growling into Ichigo's face. "You were moaning like a fucking whore if I remember correctly, I'd call that consenting."

"I didn't consent, you fuck. You broke my fucking arm too, I'd say that's not fucking consenting," Ichigo said with a snarl at him.

Inaba's eyes went wide and he moved and slammed Ichigo onto the table hard. He leaned over his back and pressed the gun into his temple. "How about this, I'm gonna pick one of you three, and you're coming with me on that jet that your friends are sending for, and they're gonna be my special fuck buddy. So how about you decide…"

"Me," Ichigo said immediately. "Take me, I'll go with you and do whatever you want me to do," he said, closing his eyes.

Ichigo saw the horror on both girls' faces as well as Isshin's. "Inaba, you bastard, if you touch my son again…!" Isshin screamed, but stopped when the gun cocked loudly in the room.

"Isshin, I think you should be quiet when I have a gun at your slut son's head," Inaba said, grinning as he stood up.

Ichigo started to stand, but Inaba slammed him back over the table. "No, I think your dear daddy gets to see what a fuck slut you are before we run off into the twilight," he said, using his free hand to reach around and unbutton Ichigo's jeans.

Ichigo's face was a mask as he closed his eyes. "Get it over with, fucker, and quit talking," Ichigo said finally.

Isshin was trying desperately to get the zip ties undone but he'd made sure his hands were together instead of crossed when he'd put them on him. Inaba did know how to tie up a person, that he'd already known. Isshin didn't want to look as Inaba pushed Ichigo's jeans down. The only consolation was that he and the girls were facing Ichigo instead of where they could actually see what was happening.

"You little fuck slut," Inaba said suddenly as Ichigo's face pinched. "You're still wet here, you can't even go a day without a fucking cock inside you?"

Ichigo bit his lip and felt the gun press into the small of his back. "Who was fucking you?"

"Sōsuke," Ichigo growled out. "He's my boyfriend, after all," he said finally, wincing as the gun barrel pressed harder into his spine.

Inaba grinned. "Ah, you don't have a boyfriend, you're nothing but a hole for him to use, just like you've always been."

Ichigo tried to ignore it but when he slammed into him he still yelped partly out of shock and partly out of pain. His hands fluttered under his stomach where he was bent over on top of them, but he didn't dare move with the gun right in his spine. He turned to see his sisters and his father staring in horror, and he couldn't stop the tears then. After all the work he'd done, he was feeling it all crashing down around him again. The walls were falling down.

Finally, Inaba slammed back into him hard enough to make him yell out again and Ichigo felt the sickening sensation of him coming to completion. If he hadn't had the gun at his back, he would have tried to slam his head back into him but he couldn't the way he had pushed him over the table. The gun moved and he felt his clothes moved back over him and Inaba slapping him hard on the ass.

"Still a nice little fuck," Inaba said. "You'll make a good permanent fuck toy when we get to a nice private Caribbean island."

Inaba was about to pull Ichigo to his feet when there was a flash above him and Inaba stumbled backward in shock, and Ichigo looked to see his uncle Kaien standing in the doorway unsteadily with blood running down both his arms. Ichigo stood, turning to see Inaba was standing with a butterfly knife protracting from his right shoulder. He frowned and then switched his gun to his left and reached for Ichigo again.

Ichigo shook his head. "No more," he growled and dove bodily at Inaba, knocking him backward off his feet. Ichigo followed over, dropping to his knees where he'd fallen onto his back and was trying to get up. He picked up his bound hands and slammed both into is face, feeling his nose crunch sickenly under the force and feeling blood spray.

"No more!" he screamed, pulling his arms back and hitting him again and again until he felt the gun pressing under his chin, he hadn't realized when he'd gotten to his feet again, he was just hitting him. "Go ahead you fucking bastard! You tried to take it all and you can't take what I won't give you!" Ichigo said as Inaba stood, his face bleeding profusely. "You don't scare me!" he yelled, and then Inaba just turned and bolted out the door as Ichigo fell to his knees, panting heavily as he heard people moving behind him.

He didn't recognize the passage of time at all, all he knew was the next thing that happened was he felt someone reaching for his hands and he tried to push them away only to hear Sōsuke's voice telling him it was okay, that he had him now, and that it was over.


	18. Before Chaos Ends

Chapter 18

"Goddammit I want to leave already, Sōsuke!" Ichigo sniped from his position in the hospital bed.

Ichigo wore a scowl, which Sōsuke was beginning to think was a permanent feature on his face nowadays. Sōsuke sighed and shook his head. Ichigo was sitting on the hospital bed with a gown waiting for the doctor to come in and examine him and collect an evidence kit. Ichigo, however, was not keen on either of those things happening. Sōsuke had insisted, and so did the police that had made sure to get into the ambulance.

Sōsuke and Kisuke had both gotten to the house the Kurosakis were at about the same time. Kisuke had been with him at the safehouse where Noba and Ririn were staying. Sōsuke had wanted to discuss Ichigo's worry about what was going to happen with them. When Uryū called, Sōsuke and Kisuke had both went to their cars and headed to the station to get officers, Kisuke calling the house line to try and "negotiate" with Inaba. Of course, they were soon listening to the feed from Uryū's phone, and had told the two to stay put at the station until they took care of it. Luckily, Sōsuke had been in his own car and hadn't heard what happened with Inaba. Kisuke however had, and Isshin had of course seen it. So when Ichigo tried to say he didn't need to go to the hospital he was met with heavy resistance. Finally, with both Isshin and Sōsuke siding together against him, he'd relented and gone to emergency.

Ichigo kicked his feet without looking at Sōsuke. Sōsuke moved and put his arms around him softly. "Hey, it's okay, are you nervous about this?"

Ichigo looked up and Sōsuke realized that he was more than a little nervous, he looked terrified. "I…I wasn't awake last time," he said finally, biting his lip. "That was…was when Yoshi had overdosed me and tried to kill me, so…so I wasn't awake when they…they did this exam."

Sōsuke's face softened and he pulled him into a hug. "Oh, I didn't realize that," he said, rubbing his back. "I didn't think about the fact that you were out for it. I was, too, when I was stabbed."

Ichigo nodded. "Um, wh-what will they do?" he asked, looking up at Sōsuke.

"Well," Sōsuke said, thinking for a moment. "If they use the procedures I'm familiar with, the doctor will come in and ask you to lay down a certain way for them. They usually brush out your hair, for any evidence, down there, and then they'll put you…" Sōsuke stopped as there was a knock at the door and a pair of people entered, one man and one woman. Sōsuke felt Ichigo's hand tighten on his arm.

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" the man said, looking up at them. "Ah, if you would please leave, Mr. Aizen, correct?" he said, looking at Sōsuke.

"No!" Ichigo said, pulling Sōsuke closer. "I don't want him to leave."

The man arched a brow. "We usually don't let anyone stay in here with victims…"

"Out." Sōsuke's voice was strong and forceful. "You go find another doctor to do this. Preferably a woman. You are not going to do this exam."

The doctor frowned and glared at Sōsuke. "What? You can't just tell me what to do, I'm the on call…"

"I don't care," Sōsuke said, feeling Ichigo's hands trembling on his hand. "You will go and find another doctor, if you have to locate a nurse practitioner, that's fine as well, they are well within their ability to perform this exam and evidence collection sufficiently, and if you knew anything about sexual assault _survivors_ then you would not have come in here with this attitude. I don't care what you're on call position is, you find someone else."

The doctor looked quite offended and shook his head. "That's not how this works around here, Mr. Aizen…" he began, not appearing to move.

"I think it is," Sōsuke said with a smile. "Because my ex-boyfriend is outside in the waiting room, and he can have your job before I leave for the way you are choosing to treat my current partner in this delicate situation."

The doctor frowned and shook his head. "Who are you talking about? There's no one here with that kind of power over anyone at this hospital."

Sōsuke glared, pulling his cell phone out and texting a quick note to Byakuya who had come in while they had been in the waiting room. About half a minute passed of the doctor obstinately refusing to leave and refusing to do anything until Sōsuke left until there was a knock at the door.

The nurse behind him opened the door and stepped back as Byakuya pushed the rest of the way in. "'Suke?" he asked, frowning, looking from Sōsuke to Ichigo and to the doctor.

"Mr. Kuchiki!" the doctor said.

Byakuya's company was a pharmaceutical company, of course. However, this also meant that Byakuya sat on several boards, including the hospital's board of directors. In fact, he was the chairman of that board of directors. His pharmaceutical company had merged with the hospital and that was where all of the company's research was done, including in house drug trials and studies.

"Dr. Sung," he said thoughtfully. "What is the problem here?"

The doctor cleared his throat. "Um, Mr. Aizen refuses to leave and let me do the exam on Mr. Kurosaki," he said, trying to look innocent.

Byakuya frowned and took one look at Ichigo and turned back to him. "Why are you doing this exam, Dr. Sung? You aren't in the gynecology department. You are emergency on call staff. And it is quite obvious that Ichigo and Sōsuke do not want you to be the one to do this exam. Not only that, you should have had enough basic training in emergency procedures to respect the request for another doctor, and my guess is knowing Sōsuke as well as I do, he requested a female doctor to do the exam."

"Um, but Kuchiki-sama, it uh…there is a…" he stammered not really sure how to answer the man in front of him.

"Now, I suggest that you locate a female doctor from the OBGYN department, as soon as possible because the police are waiting for the evidence collection to be expedited due to the nature of the ongoing investigation," Byakuya said, glaring at him.

"Um, and I'd listen to that request to hurry, too," Ichigo said quietly. "Kisuke Urahara is Sōsuke's other ex-boyfriend."

Sōsuke couldn't contain his smile at Ichigo that time. The doctor blinked at Ichigo then looked at Sōsuke and to Byakuya. Sōsuke grinned. "Yes, I do get around, before you ask, Dr. Sung," Sōsuke said cheekily. He glanced at Ichigo. "At least I did, before. And you really don't want to find out who else is my ex-boyfriend, because that, dear doctor, wouldn't end well for you."

Byakuya arched a brow. "Gin is in town?" he asked. "I did not realize he had come back, but I understand why. I take it he is still…ah…involved with the same people he was when you were with him."

Sōsuke grinned. "Yeah, his 'work' hasn't changed. So, best you keep him and Kissy apart, 'Kuya. I honestly don't want him arresting, Gin."

The doctor nodded and disappeared out the doorway, leaving Sōsuke to start laughing and shaking his head in mirth. "'Kuya, thanks."

Byakuya nodded and stepped forward and took Ichigo's hand gently. "Ichigo, please, know that Sōsuke will be there for whatever you need. My biggest regret in life was letting things end with him like they did," he said and kissed the back of Ichigo's hand gently.

"What the hells are you doing, Bya?" came a voice from the doorway. "Don't go kissing other mens' hands like that, dammit!"

Ichigo looked over and saw the redheaded guy from his class standing in the doorway with Rukia who was in his class. "See, I thought I heard your voice, Nii-sama."

"Hey, yo, Ichigo, what's up?" Renji said with a smirk, coming and slapping Byakuya's ass hard enough to make the stoic looking man flinch.

Ichigo blinked, sitting in a hospital gown. "What the hell, this isn't an open room for everyone to come in and out!" he said finally. "Why are you here?"

Renji grabbed Byakuya's waist with both hands and leaned against him and put his nose in his hair for a second. "Came looking for my bitch boy," he muttered into Byakuya's ear. Byakuya's face colored slightly. "Urahara said he'd come back here when Sōsuke texted him."

Ichigo's eyes went a little wide at the way Renji was talking about Byakuya. He glanced at Sōsuke who had a bemused look on his face. "Well, I will leave, before Renji becomes irate with me," he said smiling and nodding to Sōsuke and Ichigo. "Please text me if the doctors give you any further trouble. I will remain in the waiting room until Ichigo has been sent home to ensure things go smoothly."

"Oh, you will," Renji said, tightening his grip on Byakuya's hips. "Hm. Just wait until I get you home, you're gonna pay for being so much a fucking pain in my ass tonight," Renji groused, letting go of Byakuya's hips and grabbing his hand possessively and leaving with him. Rukia smirked and shook her head and followed.

"Sōsuke," Ichigo said as the door swung shut.

"I suppose I should explain, Byakuya is a masochist and enjoys being humiliated and talked down to like that," Sōsuke said with a smile. "It was…one of the only aspects of him that I didn't like, because I have trouble answering those needs when they are as…extreme as 'Kuya's…"

"But…but Renji isn't much older than me, and he's like…" Ichigo started.

"Renji's twenty-one, and he's thirty-six. He prefers younger men, which I of course, am younger than him as well," he said with a smirk.

"What did you mean? About Gin and Kisuke not being able to be around each other?" Ichigo said with a frown suddenly.

Sōsuke sighed. "I guess, since you enjoyed them I should let you know exactly how Gin can show up here and stay for a long period and seems to enjoy all the benefits of being moneyed while doing it…" Sōsuke and Gin had split up for this very reason. "He's Yakuza. He didn't take off his shirt when we were with him, but I'm sure you noticed that Kira has the beginnings of two tattooed sleeves on his arms. Gin has been with them since he was sixteen years old, and he's quite the accomplished business man in their name. Kira is his assistant, and that's how they met each other. What drove the wedge between us was when I found out he had lied to me about no longer working for them."

Ichigo nodded and then jerked as there was a knock at the door again. This time two women entered, one older woman with long dark hair in braids and the other was shorter with large gray eyes and an overabundance of breasts.

"Ichigo, I'm Dr. Retsu Unohana, and this is my nurse, Orhime. How are you feeling right now?" she asked gently.

"N-nervous. I don't…don't remember anything when I had…this kind of exam before…I was out," he said. "And that other doctor, he was really rude…and I didn't like him and…"

Retsu smiled. "It is fine, I assume you are Ichigo's partner?" she said, looking at Sōsuke.

"Sōsuke, and yes," he said, liking her immediately. "I'm sorry, but I insisted the other doctor leave, he…he was not good for Ichigo."

"You speak from experience?" she asked, turning and moving the cart nearer to the table with the collection kit and her tools on it.

Ichigo's hand tightened on Sōsuke's hand infinitely more when he saw the tray of medical equipment. The nurse began opening the sealed container and started laying out the items. She moved around, a blush rising as she got nearer to Ichigo.

"I need to see your hands, please," she said. "I'm going to scrape under your nails."

Ichigo frowned, giving her his right hand. "But…why? I don't think it will matter, I was punching him, there might…"

"Ichigo, its okay, just let them do their job, okay," Sōsuke said, putting his hands on Ichigo's shoulders and squeezing them rhythmically. "They have a whole list of things they have to do."

After the young nurse was done, Retsu smiled. "Now, I'll need you to lay on your side on the table so that we can collect any evidence from the hair in your pubic region. And Orihime well comb through your hair for the same thing."

Ichigo nodded slowly moving to lay down and swallowing hard. "But why my hair? I mean, he didn't…"

Sōsuke moved around and took both his hands. "Fibers and trace evidence," he said softly.

"But…but why, I know who it was, and so does everyone else, there's not like any way that he could say it wasn't…" he stammered, wincing as Retsu slid the paper sheet under his hips and began working on combing through his lower hair.

"Ichigo, please tell me if you become too uncomfortable, we can give you a sedative if you need it," Retsu said softly, finishing up and sealing the evidence collection.

The nurse at his head did the same thing and then Retsu looked at Sōsuke. Sōsuke knew that this would be the hardest part for him.

"Ichigo, I'll need you to lay on your back, and scoot down to the end of the table here," she said.

Ichigo rolled to his back and scooted down until his knees were at the edge and he watched as she moved the metal stirrups open and nodded to him, dropping a sheet over his thighs. "Put your feet here, and then come all the way down, dear," she said, nodding gently at him.

Ichigo wasn't sure how he felt as he put his feat in the stupid things and he suddenly was hit with a wave of panic that the position induced. He squeezed his eyes closed and held tight to Sōsuke's hand and slid down as she had asked, trying to hide the trembling in his legs at the exposure. The young nurse, stayed up by his head, thankfully.

"Now, Ichigo, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing as I do it, okay? And if you need to stop, I want you to tell me," Retsu said, patting his knees reassuringly.

"I don't know why we have to do this," Ichigo said, his breath hitching a bit. "I mean, why do you need evidence when…when my father watched what he did…"

"We have to have the DNA evidence to back up the witness account," Sōsuke said, rubbing Ichigo's hands. "Just bear through it, and we'll be home in no time, I promise, Ichigo."

Ichigo nodded and Retsu smiled. "I'm going to be touching you, and you will feel something cold and slick. Just try and hold still for me."

Ichigo nearly jumped when he felt her touch him. He bit down on the inside of his cheek and resisted the urge to slam his knees together. It was different though, and he could tell there was some kind of really slick lube being used. "Alright, Ichigo, are you still okay?" she asked, looking over his paper sheet covered knees. He nodded at her.

Retsu patted his knee again and picked up something metal. "Okay, first I'm going to insert something called a speculum inside you, it will be cold, but it shouldn't hurt. It is so I can check for any internal tears, perforations, and collect the semen sample."

Ichigo's hand again tightened as she put it inside him and frowned as it felt really weird. "Ah," he breathed. "Ah, that feels weird, can you take it out…" he said, his heartrate skyrocketing.

"Almost done, Ichigo, can you hold on a few more moments, otherwise I'll have to reinsert it again to finish. Are you in pain?" she said, looking at his face.

Ichigo swallowed, shaking his head. "I-I'm okay, just please hurry."

Sōsuke rubbed his hands until she finished, putting down the instruments and cleaning him off. She turned, stripping off her gloves and tossing them and patted his knee. "Alright, you can sit up again, dear. You did very well," she said with a smile.

Ichigo was sitting up and clinging to Sōsuke as soon as she said it. He was heaving heavy breaths. Sōsuke looked at her. "Dr. Unohana, can you give him something, I think he's going to need it," he said quietly. She nodded, turning and taking a capped syringe from her cart, moving around and patting Ichigo's leg.

"Ichigo, I'm going to give you something to help you calm down, okay?" she asked.

At that point, Ichigo couldn't even think he just nodded, burying his face in Sōsuke's chest. He didn't even flinch as she injected his thigh. After a few moments he felt kind of heady, and his shoulders started to slack. He looked up at Sōsuke and smiled. "Sōsuke, I'm tired," he said softly.

"Take a nap, love, I'm going to talk to the doctor, okay?" Sōsuke said, kissing his forehead. Ichigo nodded already falling asleep. Sōsuke laid him back on the bed and looked to Retsu.

"How bad?" he asked softly.

Retsu sighed. "I'm sure you know already about the scarring he has," she said and Sōsuke saw the younger nurse pale at it. Sōsuke nodded. "There are a couple minor tears from the current assault, but nothing that should give him much trouble. I'd refrain from any anal sex until he has fully recovered, just out of fear of infection if the healing tears reopen. From his file, I saw that when he came in last he had no current tearing."

Sōsuke smirked, glancing at Ichigo's sleeping face. "He's not gonna like that," he muttered.

The nurse colored red and Retsu arched a brow. "I take it he is not a sex repulsed survivor."

Sōsuke shook his head. "Not at all," he muttered, "But then, neither was I," he said, lifting the edge of his shirt to show her the tattoo on his stomach.

"I can understand why you did not get along well with Dr. Sung. He tends to be off putting toward male survivors especially. He is…what you would call a very…inconsiderate sort," she said with a sigh.

"Well, after Byakuya gets done with him, he better reevaluate his ethics," Sōsuke muttered, leaning over and brushing his hand over Ichigo's head.

"Kuchiki?" Orihime said from where she was putting the seals on the evidence kit. "The Chairman of the board of directors?" she said slightly surprised.

Retsu smiled softly. "Yes, I heard he was in the waiting room, seems the hospital is in an uproar about him being here unannounced like this. I understand now, though, why he's here. He had told me that he used to date a dashing young brunette man with a tattoo on his stomach that covered a vicious knife wound."

Sōsuke smirked, seeing the complete shock on the nurse's face. "He…Chairman Kuchiki…he's gay?" she asked suddenly.

Retsu sighed, shaking her head. "You did not see that feisty red haired man earlier?"

"Th-the one that was cursing at the receptionist about where his…his…um…" she said, blushing again.

Sōsuke giggled. "Boy-bitch, I believe, is what he calls Byakuya," Sōsuke said finally. "I'm surprised he didn't use the loudspeaker when he was looking for him."

Orhime stared at him. "You…you dated Chairman Kuchiki?" she asked softly as there was a knock on the door.

Retsu opened it and Kisuke came in with a grin. "Is the collection kit ready?" he asked, and saw Sōsuke.

"Suke!" he said, running over and grabbing him up in a hug. "I was afraid I had missed you!"

Sōsuke groaned. "Kissy…please…I've already had to explain why 'Kuya was running around with Renji smacking his ass…can you get off me…"

"Dammit, get off your ex, you coy bastard," someone said from the door. Sōsuke saw it was Yoruichi.

"Hey," Sōsuke said, still being gripped tightly by Kisuke. "And Kisuke! Get your hand off my ass!" he said, growling as he pushed him back.

"Can you not feel him up in front of me?" she asked, punching Kisuke in the shoulder.

"Aw, why not, if he was just willing to play with a woman, we could have such fun…" Kisuke said with a grin.

Sōsuke rolled his eyes. "You know I'm not interested in your fantasy threesome, Kissy."

"Spoilsport. I heard you had one with Gin and his fiancé," Kisuke said, crossing his arms and pouting.

"They're both men!" Sōsuke said with an exasperated sigh.

"Well, you don't have to even touch her!" he said, grinning.

Yoruichi slapped the back of Kisuke's head, knocking his hat off. "Bastard, you don't go making threesomes without consulting your wife!" she said. "Now hurry up and get the kit so we can take those kids back to the safe house."

Kisuke turned to the mildly amused looking Retsu and took the sealed box. "Thank you, my lovely Dr. Unohana. Enjoy your evening."

Yoruichi sighed and followed Kisuke out and left the young nurse with her jaw hanging. Sōsuke couldn't help but starting to laugh long and hard. He had to laugh, otherwise he would have cried, he thought.

**-oooooo-****oooooo****-oooooo-**

Kisuke dropped Ririn and Noba off with Yoruichi at the safe house for the night and headed to the station. He had a couple interviews to conduct, and he had another arrest to make before the night was over. He knew Yammy worked nights, and he was going to make sure to be there when the arrest was made. He stopped in front of the doors and sighed. Everything had been so messed up. So many of his people, the people he thought were the best at their jobs, had been brought down by the Utagawas. First, he thought, he wanted to see if they had any idea where Inaba might have gone, so that meant he'd deal with Ryo and Yoshi.

He dropped the evidence kit off with forensics and set up for them to arrest Yammy when he came in to go onto his shift tonight. He'd asked one of the duty officers to grab one of the tranq guns because he had a feeling Yammy was going to get violent. Especially if he was indeed on drugs like he suspected as well. He headed down to Interrogation room one where Ryo was waiting. He flipped on the recording device for the room and went in and sat down. He was leaning back in the seat and staring at the ceiling tiles.

"Ryo Utagawa," Kisuke said with a sigh.

"Didn't we do this already?" Ryo asked with a sigh. "I mean, I told your head captain everything I knew."

"Well, I want to ask some questions again, now that you're not strung out and see if you changed your mind on some of the things you claimed to have no knowledge of. You know that we can try to cut you a better deal if you provide us with the appropriate information," Kisuke said, staring at him.

"What do you want to know, Captain Urahara?" he said, smiling at him.

"First off, I read your statement. I want to hear from you why," Kisuke said with a sigh.

"Why what?" Ryo asked, looking truly confused by the question.

"Why would you have sat in that house and let Yoshi torture, sell, rape, and confine those children," Kisuke said, frowning.

"That wasn't my idea, and I told her it was horrible," Ryo said sighing dejectedly. "I wanted to do something else with them, but she shut me down because it was too much work," he said with a shrug.

Kisuke raised an eyebrow. "What did you want to do with them?" he asked, preparing for a horrible and degrading idea that had to be worse than what Yoshi had done.

"Well, see, I thought they could be a little gang for us. And if we gave them all the finer things they wanted, and pampered them, then they'd do whatever we wanted. I wanted to get them to do stuff because they wanted to, not force them to do anything. I wanted to run white collar stuff, you know, scamming people outta money, using the kids as bait and teaching them to pickpocket on the side. I thought we could train them to be perfect little plants, bat those cute eyes and then when we got money, just buy them all the stuff any kid could want, you know. Then they'd want to help us, and then we'd be set for life," he said, smiling at the idea.

"Why didn't you?" Kisuke asked, frowning.

"Ah, well, Yoshi didn't like the idea of giving them stuff they wanted. I might have cared more, but the drugs…the drugs just got their hooks in my head, and I just didn't want to think about it. It was easier, sucking down some opium smoke and just forgetting about everything for a while. She was always a bitch when she didn't get her way. I told her that this scheme wasn't gonna last…but she was convinced we could run with it. I knew it was gonna end like this. She just thought she could take out her nastiness on those kids, and part of me was glad," he said, rubbing a hand over his head thoughtfully.

"Glad?" Kisuke asked.

"She didn't take it out on me, you know?" he said with a frown. "I just…we got together when we were kids. We fucked up together and both of us got disowned. She was all I had, and she was mean and angry all the time, and the drugs just made it go away."

Kisuke blinked and cocked his head thoughtfully. "What did she do to you?"

Ryo looked at Kisuke and shrugged. "Nothing, really, I mean…just when she was strung out she'd say things, and she shot me once," he said, his hand going to his shoulder unconsciously and rubbing it. "She blamed me for us not having money like we should."

Kisuke could see where this was going and he sighed. "Okay, Ryo. I'll have the bailiff take you back so you can sleep."

Ryo nodded and Kisuke left, stopping outside the room and sighing. He saw over to the side that one of his officers was watching through the glass. "So…domestic abuse too, even between them. She's a piece of work," Kisuke said and walked down to the other interrogation room. He entered and sat down across from her and she gave him a glaring look.

"What the fuck do you want?" she asked. "It is well past lights out, and I was trying to sleep."

Kisuke sighed. "I wanted to ask you something. I've had a long day, and I'm dealing with your buddy Inaba, so tell me, where would he go if he was injured and running?"

She smirked. "He giving you a fight, huh?"

"Just give me the information I need, Yoshi, and maybe your sentence can be lightened. It's already heavy enough. You know that I can help you if I want," Kisuke said, leaning back and staring at her for a long moment.

She snorted. "You have no idea. You shouldn't have got involved. We had a good thing."

"Good thing?" Kisuke said, frowning. "You were abusing and torturing helpless kids."

She shrugged. "They were orphans, no one cared what happened to them. How else could we have run this for ten years?" she asked, smiling at him. "If I hadn't let that little bitch slut go to college, we'd still be doing the same fucking thing."

Kisuke ground his teeth. "I've been onto this for a lot longer than you know, Yoshi. You think everything was so carefully done, but you don't realize how much of a trail you left," he said softly. "I was already following the corruption. It would have ended eventually. All Ichigo Kurosaki's case did was bring it to an end a little faster."

"They liked it, don't let them tell you otherwise," she said, looking at him long. "Every fucking time, they liked the attention."

"No one likes being tortured, Yoshi. No one," Kisuke said, nearly growling.

"Oh, don't give me that. See, it's Ichigo that you got so upset about, wasn't it? That little bitch was such an easy brat to manipulate. He'd put his ass on the line at the drop of a hat. He liked it. Every time I went down there to pull one of those little brats up for their starring roles on my tapes, he'd try and get me to take him instead. He liked being fucked. He liked having those strange men throw him down and fuck him again and again. He liked it when I took my gun and shoved it up his boy cunt. He liked that so much he'd just come upstairs to get caught just so I could fuck his ass with whatever I could find," she said, smiling at him in utter calm.

Kisuke fought the urge to vomit. "He did that so you wouldn't hurt the others, Yoshi. He didn't like it. He was protecting them because he felt like he had to stand between them and you."

Yoshi rolled her eyes. "Whatever makes you and him sleep better. I know what a slut he was. I bet he's already sleeping around to get that hungry little whore hole of his filled every chance he can."

Kisuke glared at her for a long time. "You know, it doesn't matter what you say, Yoshi. There's no excuse for anything you did to those kids."

She shrugged. "Like I give a fuck."

Kisuke stood and then turned and looked at her. "You know, that drug shipment that you and Ryo got your hands on ten years ago, the one you used to fund this little enterprise," Kisuke said, looking at her. "Wasn't that a Yakuza shipment?"

Yoshi frowned, looking surprised at him bringing that up. "Yeah, so what?" she asked.

"I'd keep an eye on your back in prison, Yoshi. Yakuza have a long memory," he said, nodding to her. "And you never know who knows that it was you that stole it."

With that Kisuke turned and left, heading out into the main bullpen. It was almost eleven. He sighed, looking up as he saw Yammy come in, talking with another officer that was coming on duty. He swallowed, hoping that this went smoothly.

"Yo, Yammy," Kisuke said, motioning him over toward him.

"Captain Urahara," he said, coming over. "You need something."

"Yammy Riyalgo, you're under arrest for aiding and abetting and for obstruction in an investigation into Inaba…" Kisuke started, only to be flying across the room before he finished his sentence, slamming into the wall. He groaned where he landed and scrambled to his feet just in time to see Yammy topple. Near the receptionist desk, Iba stood with the tranq gun in his hand.

"Fuck," Kisuke said, wobbling for a second before collapsing. He was hoping that ringing was in his head and not actually in the room.

**-oooooo-****oooooo****-oooooo-**

Sōsuke sat beside Ichigo and sighed. When he woke up, they'd been cleared to go home. He just hoped Ichigo was feeling better then. He looked through the bag with the prescriptions inside it. Anti-anxiety medicine, anti-biotics, pain medication, a salve, and some more potent anxiety medications in case of a severe attack. He sighed, then jumped hearing his phone ring in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was Gin.

"Gin?" he asked, frowning, wondering why Gin would be calling him at this odd time of night. It was almost midnight.

"Susu, hey, I heard what happened to Ichi-baby. How is he?" he asked.

"Gin, how the hell…I'm not even gonna ask," Sōsuke said with a sigh. "He's going to be okay. We're leaving when he wakes up."

Gin paused for a minute. "This guy, was his name Kagerōza Inaba?"

Sōsuke blinked. "Ah, yeah, how do you know that?"

"And, the woman and man, they were Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa, right?"

Sōsuke felt the frown moving across his brows. "Um, yeah, but we probably should talk about it, they're in custody and it's a viable investigation…and…"

"Don't worry, Sōsuke. Don't worry," Gin said, and Sōsuke heard that sound in his voice. It was that sound that he'd had when…

"Gin, don't. Please, you can't do this. Let the police do their jobs," he said, biting his lip because a part of him wanted Gin to do just that. Even though this had been why he and Gin hadn't stayed together. Even though he knew that what he was going to do was almost as bad as what had already happened.

"Hey, you know, I'll always love you, Susu. And I want you happy, and I want to see your Ichi-baby happy. If that means that I can't see you again, that's okay, because I know that you'll be safe, and so will he," Gin said, and Sōsuke knew he was going to do whatever he had planned no matter what Sōsuke said.

Sōsuke shook his head, eyes wide. "Please, you'll get hurt and…"

"Baby, I won't get hurt. This is what I do, remember?" Gin said, and the phone went dead, leaving Sōsuke staring at his shaking hand for a long moment.

About ten miles away, Gin put his phone into his too tight jeans and smiled at Kira. Kira smirked and snapped the riding crop he was holding in his hand. "Can I?" Kira said with a tone of ultimate excitement. Gin smirked, shucking his shirt.

"Shall we tell him who we are?" he said, as Kira came up and ran his hands over Gin's ink covered body.

The only places devoid of the intricate tattoos were those that would be seen when he wore his suit. They extended under the band of his pants. They weren't complete, of course. His legs hadn't been done yet. Kira's had started on his shoulders, but of course, he was new. Kira smirked, wearing only his slacks now. They walked into the next room where a man was hanging by his wrists from the ceiling.

"Well, Kagerōza Inaba, it seems we're going to get to know each other," Gin said, smilng. Inaba looked up, seeing the trademark tattoos covering Gin's body.

"What…I never…I never did anything to Yakuza. Never! I never crossed you!" he said frantically, staring between the two blondes.

"Well, that isn't entirely true," Gin said, sitting down in the chair that sat before him. "You see, Sōsuke Aizen is my ex, who I might add I deeply and truly love with all my heart. And it seems you had the absolute worst idea and not only raped his current lover once, but twice. Now, that alone, I couldn't sanction as official action," Gin said, staring at his nails. "However, what I could sanction happened when I found out that your associates, Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa had made a tidy profit after stealing from us."

Inaba's eyes went wide. "But…but I didn't steal it! They did!"

"And there's the problem," Gin said, watching as Kira circled the man hanging by his wrists. "See, I was wondering if you knew that they'd made their fortune on Yakuza product. And you did. I really wish you'd said you hadn't known…" Gin said, looking up and locking his bright blue eyes on Inaba's. "Actually, no I didn't wish you had. Because now, I'm going to enjoy this personally, and professionally."

"If you kill me, your pussy ex-boyfriend and his cunt boy toy won't forgive you, they're both too soft!" he yelled as Kira started stroking his back with the crop.

Gin smiled. "Oh, I know that. But the pleasure I get from this, and knowing that you, nor those Utagawas, will never hurt him, or another soul, that is good enough for me."

Kira grinned with sadistic glee as Gin nodded to him. Inaba screamed for them to stop. Like those that he himself had victimized, though, his words meant nothing.


	19. Life Without Chaos

Chapter 19

Without Chaos Interfering

Sōsuke sat exhausted against the headboard of the bed and read a manga on his phone's reader. He and Ichigo had gotten home just after three am, and Ichigo of course had fallen into a sleep of the dead immediately. Between the stress and the medications he'd been given, it was no wonder he couldn't stay awake. Sōsuke, however, couldn't bring himself to get up and go in the next room. He sat on the covers where Ichigo sprawled across perhaps three quarters of Sōsuke's king sized bed. Now and then he would snort and wheeze in his sleep and Sōsuke smiled and kept reading. It was well after noon already, and he bet he perhaps slept for three hours during the night. He'd woke up everytime Ichigo had moved.

He was almost ready to get up and fix food so that he could get Ichigo up and give him his medicine this morning when the doorbell rang. Sōsuke stood, stretching a bit before he went into the front and opened the door to see Isshin standing there nervously.

"Ah, Ichigo is still asleep, I'm afraid, after the events yesterday…" Sōsuke said, glancing back at the bedroom door.

"I…came to talk to you, actually, Sōsuke, if that's okay," he said quietly. Sōsuke blinked.

"Of course, come, I'll put on some tea," he said, gesturing for the other man to come into the room and follow him.

Isshin saw that he was in an undershirt like he usually wore, the sleeveless style. He could see that the tattoos he'd gotten recently were starting to heal up, only peeling a bit in a couple places. He couldn't imagine how much the man had paid for that much tattoo work. Isshin himself had never worked up the to have them done. He sat down and watched as Sōsuke went into the kitchen and started a tea kettle.

"Um, so the tattoos…" Isshin said, looking up. "I never managed any, do they hurt much?"

Sōsuke turned to him shaking his head. "Actually, the worst part of tattooing is the healing period. It feels like a sunburn when it starts to heal, you see, and you mustn't scratch or peel at it otherwise the inking will be damage," he said, putting out a tray of teas on the table and getting two cups for them. "I suppose the pain is sometimes an attractive part of the process for some people. I know many of my clients had tattoos and piercings after their assaults."

"So…you…you counseled people professionally…that had this stuff happen to them…" Isshin said, picking out a jasmine tea from the tray and looking up at him.

Sōsuke nodded. "I did. When I started school, I was so certain that I was going to help people get through the things that I had gone through. I wanted to change people's lives. I was very idealistic about it, which wasn't a bad thing. I had quite a thriving practice for nearly two years."

"Why did you close it and move back?" Isshin said as Sōsuke sat to wait on the water.

Sōsuke sighed and looked thoughtful. "Well, I didn't anticipate the harm that dealing with other survivors would to my own mental health."

"I don't understand," Isshin said, chewing on his lip. "And I mean that sincerely. Because I don't understand this and I don't know how to deal with it all. I've said and done things that I shouldn't have, and I've had even more thoughts that I haven't spoken because I don't know if I should say them. I…I don't want to hurt Ichigo. He's been hurt enough as it is."

Sōsuke saw the sincerity written on Isshin's face. Sōsuke nodded. "Well, Isshin, you are indeed in a better frame of mind than some of the families I've worked with," he said with a deep sigh. "Rape, sexual violence, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, these things aren't easily put into nice little boxes. A person that survives these things can have a myriad of things happen to them, and in today's society, male survivors are often fearful of coming forward, and that goes double for non hetero male survivors. There's this idea that to be a man, you have to protect yourself, and that by having another person force themselves on us, they are somehow devaluing us, removing our dignity. The situation runs far deeper than just simple concepts of violence, because of the way our world as a whole equates weakness with femininity, and therefore anyone that shows weakness is equated as not 'man enough' to be considered a man. Being weak is the worst thing that can happen to a man in the current status quo's mind," Sōsuke said with and nod of his head. "It…it is a societal deep issue. I cannot change those things, however, and that is why dealing with male survivors is difficult."

Isshin nodded slowly as the kettle announced with its shrill whistle that the water was boiling. Sōsuke got up and poured them each a cup and returned the kettle. "Because of this, for male survivors, we have to come to terms first with the idea that having something as abhorrent as being raped by someone does not make us less of a man or weak in any fashion. We come to this in different ways. Ichigo reacts with violence and anger, which I'm sure will continue. He tries to push away all that could help him out of his perceived inadequacy. Further than that, he put responsibility for everyone in that basement on his own shoulders, and each harm that befell them, he felt was his shortfall."

Sōsuke stirred his tea, a calming chamomile green, thoughtfully. "I knew the first day I met him in my class," he said finally. "I just…there was something in his face. And no matter what I did, I couldn't stop thinking about him. Every class, he would come in and would suffer through whatever pain he was in silently, and he only ever missed assignments that required participation from family members. I felt…discomfort. I was…attracted to a student. Granted, he's not that much younger than me. So I put all my interest in helping him, thinking that if I could just get him help, and move on, then I could also move on. Because there was something about him that struck an all too familiar chord in me."

Isshin sipped his tea quietly. "So, you could tell he'd been hurt, or was hurting," Isshin said quietly.

"In a way," Sōsuke said, running a hand over his brunette hair. "I wanted to save him, you see. When I recovered, I slept around. A lot. I told Ichigo about it, but I don't think he understands the scope of what I did. I was confused and wanted to make myself feel something besides numb. I can't…I can't even tell you how many, Isshin, I'll be honest. I'm sure you've run across something here or there about me, considering the reaction you had to our relationship."

Isshin sighed. "I…did. My friend, Yukio, the bounty hunter that caught Ryo and Yoshi, he had found some things and showed me. There were some…very unflattering accounts. I believed that you were using Ichigo as another conquest as sorts."

Sōsuke nodded. "I freely admit to that," he said softly, glancing at his cup. "But then, Byakuya made me feel again. And we had a good relationship for a long while. When we broke up, Kisuke and I started dating. And I felt like I couldn't go without someone in my life. I felt that if I wasn't with someone, I was going to die. I thought that I needed someone all the time and I had a horrible fear of being alone. I ended up moving to Kyoto after I graduated, leaving Kisuke to his now wife Yoruichi. I met Gin in Kyoto, and had a couple short relationships along the way. Then I started seeing Gin."

Sōsuke stopped and took a breath. "Then, the thing that led me to leave Kyoto, the final straw if you will, happened."

Isshin looked at the pained expression Sōsuke wore. "You don't have to…" he began.

"No, I do," Sōsuke said, smiling softly at him. "I do. I plan to stay with Ichigo, and you should know these things." Sōsuke appeared to collect himself and closed his eyes for a moment. "I had been out with Gin again at a club. A big club, of course, and we were dancing and having fun, drinking a little but not too much. Well, I had started feeling ill, and thought I had just drunk too much and made my way to the bathroom. After I'd thrown up, I felt a horribly familiar feeling that I knew. I panicked, trying to get out the door only to find my way blocked by someone who kept telling me to calm down. I knew I'd been drugged, and there was no way that Gin would realize what had happened until it was too late. The guy pushed me into one of the stalls and I tried to get away from him, but I just felt so weak… Everything was a blur, but the next thing I remembered was sitting on the floor beside the toilet with a very tall, very made up drag queen trying to get my attention. He had helped me up and out of the bathroom, and I realized he had completely knocked the shit out of the guy who had followed me in there."

Sōsuke paused, sighing. "It…it was terrifying, that feeling again, and I can't even tell you the guy's name that helped me. Time skips when you've had one of those date rape drugs, I don't know if you've ever experienced it. Well, for me it does. And I remember Gin yelling at the guy that was holding me up and then when he heard what had happened, he got me out of there as quickly as he could. But the damage was done. I'd gone to the bathroom that night after Gin was asleep and there was a bottle of Percocet in the cabinet from when Gin had a surgery on his wrist a couple months previously. Of course, Gin being who he is, had a lot left since he'd refused to take most of them. I don't know how many, I just took the whole bottle."

Sōsuke sipped his tea again and thought for a long moment. "I woke up in the hospital. Gin was there, and told me he was going to fix it. He wouldn't tell me what that meant, but I stayed in the hospital psychiatric ward for three weeks until I got things under control. When I got out, I found out what Gin had meant. See, he had told me that he was ex-Yakuza, and I didn't think about the fact there are no ex-Yakuza. He wasn't, of course, but he'd lied to me. He'd told me he was done with that life. He'd instead called in favors, and he'd found the guy. They found what was left of him in the ocean a month later. So I left Kyoto, closing my office, and calling Byakuya for help. He put in a word for me with the University, and then helped me get this apartment. So I came here because in my life, that has been how I've dealt with pain, just to move on from it."

Isshin nodded, thinking on what he had said. The things Yukio had shown him, blogs from his previous encounters, versions of the things that they'd seen him do, the parties and things that he had attended less than two years ago, had been enough to make Isshin feel very worried about his son.

"So this was a fresh start again," Isshin said, sipping his own tea. "But, if you were a professional and a teacher, how could you become attached to my son like you did?"

Sōsuke smirked. "I don't know, he's just this person that makes me feel complete. His youth, but more than that, his fire. Despite everything, that spark of anger and that strength that he exudes, especially when there is someone else at risk. He…is wise beyond his years and far more mature than you realize. He…he had to be a big brother, father, teacher, and protector to those other kids. And he learned really fast how to take care of them, each and every one. He feels weak, and he feels inadequate, when the fact is that I believe he is the strongest person I've ever met. He is so much stronger than I could ever be."

Isshin smiled. "I'm…I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you before I came to conclusions. I…I talked to one of your coworkers, a Grimmjow, at a bar and he said something that I didn't realize. I saw the boy I left. But he grew up. And the boy I left is gone. I can't be the father that left ten years ago because that boy is gone. When…when I exploded at him…that was the father that was speaking. And I had to change. I had to try and figure out how to be a father to the man that is now in front of me," he said softly, stirring his tea thoughtfully, letting the jasmine scent fill his senses.

Sōsuke nodded and sipped his own cup. "Thank you," he said smiling at him. "It means a lot that you feel this way."

A short distance away, Ichigo stood just inside the doorframe to the bedroom listening. He'd woken up when the doorbell rang. He reached up and wiped away tears and considered going in there to talk to them, then decided not to. Instead, he slid down the doorframe and sat against the wall, listening and feeling his heart pounding in his ears.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Kira was positively glowing the next day as Gin fixed breakfast. Gin glanced up at him as he came into the kitchen and kissed Gin's cheek.

"Well, love, you seem to be in a good mood," Gin said smiling.

"I am, I am!" Kira said, sitting down while Gin put out breakfast for them. "I so enjoyed our fun last night," he said, eating as soon as the food was put in front of him.

"You had been depressed for a while, my love," Gin said with a smirk.

Kira was an interested creature, Gin had decided. He was an extreme sadist, making him the perfect partner for Gin in the enterprises they engaged in occasionally. However, these days, those skills were needed less and less, and Kira very rarely got a chance to truly enjoy himself. They dabbled, of course, in some bondage scenes where Kira could relieve some of his needs, but there he could not go as far as he wanted. Kira's fetish for giving pain went far beyond what the world deemed acceptable, for his glee came from blood and flesh ripping. Kira had actually ben who Gin had requested when he had dealt with the man that had attempted to assault Sōsuke in the club two years ago. Gin didn't like to get his hands dirty, so to speak, but he did enjoy watching Kira work.

Gin had been recruited into the Yakuza at fifteen because his father had been a lifelong member. When he had met Sōsuke, he had honestly stepped away. He hadn't really lied, but no one really leaves them. He just had gone on his own to pursue his own interests. Then when he was attacked, he'd contacted his father and he'd sent Kira. Then he was back in and there was not leaving again. He was a cleaner, and Kira was his assistant. After a few times of watching the little sadist work, they'd started sleeping together after their jobs. And he found completion.

Kira however got depressed when he didn't get to enact his love of torture and dismemberment. So, this diversion had been a welcome change.

Gin glanced at see his phone was ringing. It was Sōsuke. He nervously picked it up and tried to sound cheery.

"Susu, how are you today?" he asked, smiling at Kira.

"Tell me what happened," Sōsuke said quietly.

Gin grimaced. "It honestly is better that you not know, my dear. I…wouldn't want to implicate you in anything. Just know that your problem will no longer be a problem."

"Did you kill him?" Sōsuke asked a little louder.

Gin glanced at Kira who was eating still. "We did not," Gin said, feeling somewhat proud of himself and Kira. "He wishes we had, I am sure."

"What happened to him?" Sōsuke asked and Gin could hear the relief in his voice.

Gin sat down slowly. "He was left outside emergency this morning. I'm certain that he will heal…in a few weeks…and be able to stand trial, if others do not get to him first for his involvement in the missing drug shipment."

"That doesn't tell me what you did," Sōsuke said tightly.

Gin sipped his orange juice slowly. "You really don't want to know, but I didn't touch him."

"You didn't touch him," Sōsuke said doubtfully.

"Not one finger, now Kira on the other hand had a delightful time showing him the wonders of his particular talents," Gin said, smiling at his positively glowing fiancé across the table. "Kira enjoyed himself, however, I got the impression poor Inaba did not. He was quite literally babbling nonsense when I left him, so we might have broken the poor man."

Sōsuke sighed deeply but didn't comment. "Alright, I…I can't believe I'm saying this, but, thank you. And you can still visit me and Ichigo."

Gin grinned widely. "Well wonderful! Haineko is doing better, now. Now, are you taking Ichigo to the group meeting tonight?"

Sōsuke paused. "Yeah, I think it would be good for him. Will you be there for Haineko?"

"I shall indeed, so I will see you there, my dear," Gin said, making a kissing noise before he hung up.

Kira looked up. "So he didn't tell you never to show up again?"

"No, actually, I think he's come to terms with the fact sometimes, the things we do are necessary, and of course, fun," Gin said with a smirk. "Now, you violent little shit, get over here and sit on my cock."

Kira stood up, sliding his robe off and moved around the table to do just that.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was nervous as he glanced at himself in the tall mirror in Sōsuke's room. Their room, he corrected himself in his head. Their. He saw that Sōsuke was smiling gently at him.

"Are you ready?" he asked, smiling at him and brushing a hand over his head.

"Yeah, I think so. You will stay, right?" he asked, nervously.

Sōsuke kissed his forehead. "I will be in the next door meeting room with the other friends and family who are going to be working with Dr. Unohana. I'm helping her counsel the family and friends on dealing with the particulars of the situation. Jūshirō will be leading the group, as he's been working individually with several of you. So there's no reason to be nervous."

They headed out to the hospital where they were meeting in a couple of the larger conference room. Byakuya had set up everything with the board to ensure that treatment and counseling was offered free of charge to the people involved. They arrived to find that both rooms were already filling with people. Ichigo was a bit overwhelmed though, as Sōsuke led him into the first room for the survivor group. They were planning on meeting once a week until they felt they didn't need the meetings anymore. The same was said for the supporters group next door.

Sōsuke kissed Ichigo on the head and smiled as he headed over to the other room. In the family room he saw Gin and Kira already there, as well as Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu. He noticed that Ryuken was standing in the back, and Uryū and Chad were sitting in the front. Yoshino and Koga were there, as well as Wonderweiss and Luppi. He glanced and saw Ragiku Matsumoto and several others that he didn't know. Toshiro and his grandmother were there, as well as Harribel and her three consorts. So far, everyone who was closely involved with any one of them were. He looked up in surprise as someone kissed his cheek.

"Kisuke!" he exclaimed, smiling then frowning, glancing over to where Gin and Kira sat talking to each other.

Kisuke saw where he was looking and smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm not here to arrest your ex, sweetie. I'm here…ah…we decided to take in Ririn and Noba."

Sōsuke smiled. "I'm glad."

Next door, Ichigo sat down and waited as the other kids from the house entered the room and greeted him. He hugged each of them. He hugged Noba tightly and thanked him.

"So, where are you guys?" he asked Ririn as they sat down.

"Kisuke is taking us in," she answered with a smile. "They're good, and I think Noba wants to go into the police with Kisuke." Noba, who still didn't speak much, nodded.

A few minutes later Ichigo looked up to see Jūshirō walk up to the front and clap loudly.

"Welcome to our first group session. We're going to go around the room and introduce ourselves, and then we'll just talk a little bit," he said and watched.

Ho and Ban had come, but they were sitting off to the side clutching each other, and of course they didn't speak. Haineko and several of the others who had been in the house on a regular basis had also come. Everyone spoke up almost, and then it came to Ichigo and he froze staring straight ahead at Jūshirō. He moved on and then asked if anyone wanted to speak. Ichigo couldn't believe he was so scared of nothing…

He came out of his dazed state when Noba spoke beside him.

"I want to talk about the things that were good," he said, glancing around. "I know there wasn't much good, but there was some. We…we became a family through our pain. Ichigo took care of us all, and Haineko and some others would care for us. We aren't broken. We aren't. We're each other's strength and hope and love. It doesn't matter what we went through. We are family."

Jūshirō smiled and nodded. "That's true. Tell me, what makes family?"

"Ichigo took care of us," Hanataro whispered, looking up. "He got us food. He got us toys and books and he tried his best. That's family."

"We cleaned each other's wounds," Nozomi said, looking around. "We bandaged each other and we held each other when we needed it. That's family."

Ichigo's heart ached but he smiled to see them all speaking up in turn. "We kept each other sane," Ririn said softly. "Through it all, we knew we had each other."

Momo nodded. "I…I never had a real family but this was my first family and I'll always be grateful for what it gave me."

Ichigo smiled. "Family is protecting the ones we love," he said finally, his eyes tearing up. "I didn't ever let you see me cry," he said, looking at his hands. "I always, always cried, just…not around you."

Ririn frowned and put a hand on Ichigo's back. "What? Why not?"

"I thought…I thought I had to be strong enough not to cry, but when they took me up…when they did those things, I always would cry…" he said, and he felt Noba put an arm around him.

"You didn't have to hide your tears," Noba said gently.

Ichigo nodded, wiping the tears that now fell. "I thought if you didn't see me cry that you'd think I was strong."

"You were strong, even if you cried all the time, you were still the strongest one there!" Rin said, looking up at him. "You stopped them from taking me up, you let her do horrible things to you instead, because you didn't want them to hurt me. That's…that's so strong," he said, looking down at his hands.

Things continued for almost two hours as everyone talked about small things at first. No one really broached any difficult subjects just yet, but they all felt united together. Jūshirō would be seeing everyone on an individual basis as well, and some, like Ichigo, he was still seeing daily. When they were done, everyone hugged and bid each other goodbye. Ichigo waited with Sōsuke and saw his father and sisters leaving.

"Hey pop," he said softly, smiling as he stood holding Sōsuke's hand in his.

"How was your first group?" Isshin said, smiling at him.

Ichigo nodded. "Good. You?"

"Same," Isshin said, smiling. "Sōsuke really knows his stuff," he said nodding at him.

Kisuke walked up just then, scratching his head as he approached. Sōsuke frowned at him.

"Suke, you wouldn't happen to know what happened to Inaba?" he asked, arching a brow.

Sōsuke glanced at Gin and Kira as they were leaving and back to Kisuke, who looked after the two men leaving with Rangiku. "I see. He was dropped off at the emergency door this morning. He was severely beaten and we believe tortured. He's been admitted to the psych wing, though, he's not speaking coherently," Kisuke said, looking back at him.

Isshin glanced at Sōsuke and back at Kisuke. "Wow…"

"Oh, how is your agent?" Karin asked, looking at him. "That big Kenpachi guy."

Kisuke smiled. "Oh, he's fine. Didn't even have a concussion. That bastard could take on a train and come out barely scratched."

Karin and Yuzu smiled at each other. "Uncle Kaien went back to Tokyo today. That Byakuya guy said we can stay in this house as long as we want, too," Yuzu said with a grin.

"Oh, really?" Sōsuke said. "Was your uncle injured much?"

Karin shook her head. "Nah, he broke his hand, though, getting out of those zip ties. Good thing he kept that knife in his pants pocket all the time."

"I'm glad," Sōsuke said with a smile. "We should get going, it is already late," he said, pulling Ichigo into a tight hug and smiling. "We'll see you later this week for dinner?" he asked.

Yuzu smiled brightly. "Yes, seven on Thursday!"

Everyone exchanged farewells and headed out to their homes. Ichigo sat in the car and watched the world go by and was amazed at how much things had changed in such a short time. He swallowed hard and was glad that he had Sōsuke. He reached over and took his hand as he drove and he wondered exactly how things would go in the future. He didn't know, but he had Sōsuke, and Sōsuke would help him.


End file.
